Commercialization Award Eligibility

Companies interested in applying for Commercialization Awards should be beyond the formative research phase and ready to begin or expand commercialization efforts.

Established companies may apply for an award for a specific project, if they meet all of the following criteria:

• are you commercializing emerging technology?

  • Emerging technology industries include semiconductors, information, computer & software technology, energy, manufactured energy systems, micro-electromechanical systems, nanotechnology, biotechnology, medicine, life sciences, petroleum refining & chemical processes, aerospace, defense, and other areas as determined the State Leadership (Governor, Lt. Governor, Speaker of the House).

  • Companies must be structured as a C-Corporation.  If not currently a C-Corp, conversion must complete after receiving approval from the State.

  • End goal of the project must be commercialization - not research and development.
     

• may result in a technology breakthrough?

  • The technology must be potentially disruptive (not just disruptive in the marketplace).  The technology can be solving a new problem, representing a significant improvement over current solutions.

  • The technology must be critical to the company's success (i.e., not a service company).

  • The technology must be protected and defensible, typically with patents (existing or in process).  Typical industry practices can be used to protect the technology (trade secret, copyright, employee agreements, time-to-market, ...).

  • There must be independent validation of the specific technology for this project.  This could be peer reviews (active federal grant, published articles), review by an industry or technology expert, or successful prototype or pre-production testing by potential customers.

• are you partnering with a Texas research institution?

  • A research institution is either a public or private university (institution of higher education) OR the NASA Johnson Space Center.

  • This must be a well defined, documented partnership clearly impacting the technology being commercialized:

    • Licensing university technology,

    • Contracts for engineering or research services,

    • Training for users of the technology, or

    • Assistance with the commercialization strategy (business plan, market research, ...) from a business school or Small Business Development Center.

  • There must be documentation of the collaboration, either an agreement, Letter Of Intent or Memorandum Of Understanding, between the company and the research institution.

  • This could be future collaboration, and could be contingent upon receiving an ETF award.

  • Click here for a list of contacts at Gulf Coast region universities and NASA/JSC.
    

• is there a defined project scope, commercialization path and business plan?

  • Applicants must submit a Business Plan and Executive Summary.

  • There must be a well-defined project to commercialize the technology.  The award will fund a project - not the company.  Research projects will not be funded.

  • There must be a clear path to generate revenue.

  • Companies applying for Pre-Seed Commercialization Awards may be earlier stage than companies seeking the larger Commercialization Grants (incomplete management team, business plan may not yet be fully developed).
       

• will you have funding from other sources?

  • Applicants must be committed to raise matching funds (usually at least $500K).  Preference may be given to applicants using ETF awards to attract future investment.

  • Must be hard-equity investment - cash - not in-kind, founders investment or in exchange for products or services.

  • Full Commercialization Awards - companies should have received some prior equity investments.  Awardees will have up to 18 months to raise a matching investment.

  • Pre-Seed Commercialization Awards - to qualify for a Pre-Seed award, companies may have raised no more than $500K of outside equity investments prior to application.  Awardees will have up to 30 months to raise a matching investment.

  • State will not compete against other funding sources - it may be difficult for publicly traded companies to qualify.

  • If you are looking for investors who could match an ETF award, click here for a list of contacts for Gulf Coast region investors interested in helping ETF funded companies.
    

• will there be a demonstrable economic impact in Texas?

  • The company's success with the funded technology must have an impact to the economy in Texas.  This could be through:

    •  the creation of high-paying jobs (at least $18 per hour),

    • beneficial impacts to other Texas partners, or

    • improving the national or global competitiveness of Texas in emerging technologies.

  • Applicants must commit to commercialize and/or manufacture their technology in Texas.

Pre-Seed Commercialization Award requests must be for no more than $250K.  Pre-Seed awardees will be authorized a total of up up to $1M or $1.5M.  After completing the initial project, awardees may submit subsequent requests for the additional funds - secondary tranche requests will be reviewed - secondary tranches are NOT guaranteed. 

Commercialization Award requests are typically in the range of $500K to $2.5M, and with the largest award issues so far at $5M.

Additional detailed information is available on the FAQs page on this website.

If you have any questions about eligibility for Commercialization Awards, click here to send an e-mail to the Gulf Coast RCIC for assistance.