Innosphere tech incubator touts clients’ 2014 successes

FORT COLLINS — Thirty-one companies that were clients of technology incubator Innosphere supported the creation of 179 new jobs in 2014 and had an average salary of $56,000 for a full-time employee, the Fort Collins-based nonprofit reported Wednesday.

Innosphere’s program provides business support to entrepreneurs building potentially high-growth companies in the clean-tech, bioscience and hardware/software industries.

According to the incubator, the 31 successful companies – 11 others started the program but left for various reasons – raised $21.3 million in grants, angel and equity funding. They amassed total gross revenues of $9.2 million and raised a total of more than $48 million in capital to date.

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In a statement, Mark Wdowik, who serves as assistant vice president for research at Colorado State University and chairs Innosphere’s board of directors, said “It’s great to see Innosphere supporting so many companies in reaching their business goals and key milestones. Every year, I see more and more companies becoming investment-ready after taking advantage of all the services Innosphere has to offer.”

Eleven of the 31 companies graduated from the incubation program after reaching predetermined goals, according to the report. For some, graduation goals included hitting a significant revenue target or raising enough capital to finance sustainable growth. Other companies’ goals centered on forming a strategic partnership with stable funding streams.

Innosphere is accepting applications from companies that want to join the program for 2015.

“In the time period a startup is at Innosphere, they should be able to fully develop their product or service, identify their market, create their business model, hire their initial team, raise capital and generate income,” said Mike Freeman, Innosphere chief executive, in a statement.

The incubator, which focuses on startups involved in clean tech, digital health, biosciences and enterprise software, started 16 years ago as Rocky Mountain Innosphere. Its funding partners include the cities of Fort Collins and Loveland, First National Bank, FirstBank, Home State Bank, Wells Fargo, Colorado State University, CSU Ventures, EKS&H, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, Fairfield and Woods PC, the Bohemian Foundation and DuWayne Peterson.

Freeman has said that almost 90 percent of the startup companies that are part of Innosphere’s incubator survive at least five years.