Chinese investors plan to put $18 million into FMI Technologies Inc., a company in the Akron Global Business Accelerator.  The investment will enable FMI to manufacture high-tech medical imaging devices.  Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic expects the investment to result in 20 new engineering and technician jobs this year and at least 100 more by 2013.

Head over to Ohio.com for the full story and details.

Congratulations to FMI and AGBA!

Akron Global Business Accelerator client Knotice recently was awarded a 2010 Excellence in Business award by the Greater Akron Chamber.

Knotice delivers direct digital marketing software solutions to marketers across a variety of industries. Direct digital marketing is interactive marketing that is “addressable,” having the ability to identify the recipient of a marketing message. Knotice is working to change the way online marketers conduct programs to help them grow revenue, reduce cost and provide their customers with meaningful and relevant online experiences.

Congratulations Knotice!

Summit Data Communications – AGBA Client

For the second time in three years, the National Business Incubation Association has selected Summit Data Communications as a finalist for Outstanding Incubator Client in the Technology Category. The NBIA advances business incubation and entrepreneurship. Each year, the NBIA Incubation Awards honor business incubation programs and client companies that exemplify the best of the industry.

Summit is a client of the Akron Global Business Accelerator in Akron, Ohio, which won the NBIA’s Incubator Innovation Award in 2008. For four years, the Akron incubator’s mentoring and business assistance have helped Summit establish and maintain a healthy business.

Summit also has been named as a recipient of a Crain’s EDGE Award. EDGE is an organization that enhances economic development in Northeast Ohio through innovation and entrepreneurship. EDGE helps value-creating companies succeed though education, innovation, and relationship-building, while cultivating a culture that is supportive of entrepreneurial ventures. An EDGE metric identifies the Northeast Ohio companies that are creating the most value for themselves and their communities.

“Northeast Ohio is our home, and we are dedicated to creating value here,” said Chris Bolinger, Summit’s VP of Sales and Marketing. “By providing market-leading products and high service levels to a worldwide customer base, we are creating rewarding jobs not just at Summit but at partner companies in our region.”

Last year, in the teeth of the recession, Summit increased staff by 30%. This year, Summit is continuing to grow by addressing customer requirements for reliable and secure Wi-Fi connectivity in challenging environments around the world.

Syncro Medical Innovations – YBI

Add yet one more “award winning” company to YBI’s portfolio.

Congratulations to the entire Syncro Medical Innovations team for being named one of just three statewide finalists for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce’s annual Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award.

Syncro was honored for their groundbreaking research that resulted in Blue Tube™, a cutting-edge enteral feeding tube that is rapidly guided to proper placement by external magnets.

To  learn more about this wonderful life saving medical innovation, visit www.syncromedical.com.

VADXX Energy LLC, recently received a $75,000 state grant to turn old tires into synthetic crude oil.  Turning scrap tires and rubber into synthetic crude has long been one of the holy grails in the energy industry.   Guess what?  VADXX is doing it right here in Northeast Ohio.  Keep your eye on this company.

Read the full story here on Ohio.com.

As reported on Recordpub.com, Vadxx Energy LLC, a regional startup supported by two NEOinc incubators (AGBA and MAGNET), is exploring a public/private partnership with the Portage County Solid Waste Management District. The District and Vadxx are exploring a public-private partnership to turn plastics into fuel, with the district supplying the raw material and capital and Vadxx operating a pilot plant at the recycling center site on Mogadore Road. Portage County’s is the largest publicly-owned recycling operation in the state, said director William Steiner.

Vadxx Energy LLC, who are developing a process to take plastic refuse and other petroleum-based waste and turn it back into synthetic crude oil and natural gas, also had an opportunity to overview their technology to the Governor, who saw “no downside” to the proposed partnership, where the District and Vadxx would share profits.

University Hospitals Case Medical Center has spun off Fluence Therapeutics Inc., licensing to the company photodynamic therapy technology for the treatment of psoriasis and other skin diseases, according to MedCity News:

It’s the first time the Cleveland medical center has made a pre-seed investment in a start-up company, according to the center’s release. Fluence Therapeutics is housed at the Akron Global Business Accelerator, which is part of the city’s Biomedical Corridor District.

Cleveland attorney and entrepreneur Warren Goldenberg has become Fluence Therapeutics’ founding chief executive, said Stephen Behm, technology management director at the Center for Clinical Research and Technology UH Case Medical Center. “He has a successful track record with early stage companies,”  including CardioInsight and Imalux, that were developed at Case or University Hospitals, Behm said in the release.

Read the entire article on the MedCity News site.

A: The Akron Global Business Accelerator, of course (well, at least according to Governor Strickland).

The Governor made the remarks when he was visiting Echogen Power Systems (formerly ReXorce Thermionics) in the accelerator.  Echogen is developing an engine that turns the heat thrown off by industrial processes into useful electricity.  The company, a tenant of the Akron Global Business Accelerator, employs 20 people, many of them engineers at ”good paying” jobs, Strickland said.  Echogen expects to hire an 45 to 65 office employees and 50 to 75 manufacturing employees in the next five years.

Echogen received a $4.3M Third Frontier grant in 2008 that their CEO credited with shaving a year and a half off their development timetable.  The company has also attracted millions of dollars from other investors, including the regional business development group JumpStart Inc.

The full story is available over on Ohio.com’s website as reported by Paula Schleis.  Paula can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.

Akron Global Business Accelerator tenant rexorce Thermionics, while still a tenant of the accelerator, has also established it’s own headquarters in Akron and has big plans for the coming year, as reported recently by Crain’s Cleveland Business:

• The 18-person company expects to grow out of its 18,000-square-foot headquarters by January 2011
• The company in January is scheduled to install a 250-kilowatt pilot version of its Thermafficient heat engine at a power generating plant owned by a large utility
• In about a year, rexorce aims to install a 6-megawatt version of its heat engine at an industrial site

As reported in the Akron Beacon Journal recently, AGBA tenant InSet Systems has partnered with the largest underground mine in Ohio to test their technology:

‘This test will confirm all of the pieces of the system, prove its vastly superior accuracy, and serve as a demonstration site for potential customers and investors,” Chief Operating Officer Jay Breeding said in the latest newsletter from JumpStart, a business development group that has invested in the startup.

JumpStart noted that by the end of the year, ”the company will have taken a technology from idea to commercialization in 17 months. By doing this, InSeT will provide the nearly 2,000 underground mines in the U.S. with a superior way to comply with a government-regulated act and potentially save lives.”

Cleveland sports may not be working out the way we had hoped here in early June, but the economic development activities in our region certainly seem to be bearing fruit.

At the Team NEO Economic Development Impact Awards last week, ten awards were handed out recognizing various organizations and initiatives for their positive economic impact our our region.  Here’s a recap of the winners in the various categories:

• Asset Creation: Akron’s BioInnovation Institute
• Business Attraction: Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber
• Business Expansion: Ashland Area Council for Economic Development, Ashland County, Jackson Twsp.Ashland Area Council for Economic Development, Ashland County, Jackson Twsp.
• Business Retention: City of Akron, Greater Akron Chamber, County of Summit, Summit County Port Authority
• Foreign Investment: Growth Partnership for Ashtabula County
• Fostering Entrepreneurship: Lorain County Community College Foundation
• Marketing Cleveland Plus: Cohen & Co.
• Minority Business Development: City of Lakewood & LakewoodAlive
• Public-Private Partnership: Maple Street Commerce LLC. City of North Canton, and Stark Development Board
• Workforce Development: Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering Center of Cuyahoga Community College

Continued