Accelerate Long Island chair: $1.25M to bolster startups 

Accelerate Long Island has landed $1.25 million in state funding designed to help transform the region's startups into economic growth engines, said the agency's chair, Stacey Sikes.

The five-year "Innovation Hot Spot" funding from New York's Empire State Development was one of five such business incubator grants also directed to organizations in the Albany region, the mid-Hudson Valley, the Mohawk Valley and New York City.

Joining Accelerate Long Island as co-applicants for the ESD funding were: Stony Brook University, Hofstra University, New York Institute of Technology, Broad Hollow Bioscience Park and the Long Island High Technology Incubator, said Sikes, who assumed the unpaid position in March.

The mission of Accelerate Long Island will be to "continue to raise Long Island's profile as a startup community," she said.

Initiatives such as assisting entrepreneurs in seeking grants, finding tax incentives or defraying the cost of professional services, will be spearheaded by program director Dan Lloyd, Sikes said. 

Accelerate Long Island, whose roots stretch back more than a decade, initially focused on providing state and private venture capital to startup companies.

One standout from that program is Farmingdale-based Codagenix Inc., a biotechnology company whose products are based on research from Stony Brook University. Codagenix, which received state and private venture funding, in November received Food and Drug Administration fast-track designation for testing its RSV intranasal vaccine. . 

This year, however, Empire State Development, the state's business development agency, pivoted away from providing direct capital infusions to focus on helping startups to identify office space, outside funding and other services.  

Empire State Development president and CEO Hope Knight said in a statement that supporting Innovation Hot Spots and incubators allows the agency to "assist a larger number of early-stage companies" in the hope of making a difference in their future.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.