Wilmington, DE – On Thursday, County Executive Matt Meyer, entrepreneurs, economic development officials and business development professionals visited The Mill coworking space in Wilmington to mark the launch of NCCinnovates, the most significant effort in New Castle County history to support homegrown innovation and entrepreneurship to create sustainable local jobs.
“We want to help businesses innovate and grow so they can win the future,” County Executive Matt Meyer said. “NCCinnovates connects entrepreneurs with the tools and resources they need to succeed and create jobs right here in New Castle County.”
Entrepreneurs establish half a million small businesses across the U.S. each year, and small businesses power job growth by creating nearly two-thirds of all new private sector jobs. NCCinnovates features a suite of value-added resources for entrepreneurs, including:
- NCCinnovates.com, a first-of-its-kind in Delaware interactive business web portal that provides customer, market and industry information, workforce data and help identifying available commercial properties.
- Modest grants awarded to promising startup companies through partnerships with local pitch competitions.
“The NCCinnovates portal is a great mixture of entrepreneurship and data, and it provides information every business needs,” said Tariq Hook, a software engineer, entrepreneur and Executive Director at ZipCode Wilmington. “Through Delaware’s Open Data Challenge, we recognized the need for one site that brings together data about how to start a business and available resources, and I applaud New Castle County for stepping up and creating this critically valuable resource.”
“It takes a village to grow a company, and NCCinnovates awards leverage partnerships to give start-ups critical support to build a solid foundation for success,” said Dora Cheatham, Executive Director of the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce Emerging Enterprise Center (EEC). “Through the EEC’s partnership with New Castle County, companies have office space, a place to meet clients, one-on-one mentoring and support in building a sustainable business model quickly so they can focus on growing their client base and expanding their businesses.”
This summer, New Castle County presented its first NCCinnovates grant to local start-up D150 Fueling, in partnership with the Emerging Enterprise Center (EEC). The award come with office space and amenities at the EEC, business growth workshops, referral services and a one-year membership in the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce.
NCCinnovates is administered by the New Castle County Office of Economic Development, which is focused on supporting the county’s innovation ecosystem by prioritizing new job creation through entrepreneurship, startup companies, existing small businesses and providing a predictable land use planning process.
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Contact: Jason Miller, Director of Communications, 302-545-1462