Alliance is joining other cities in the region who are putting out the welcome mat to entrepreneurs, offering them funds.
Alliance has created the Alliance Startup Fund, seeding it with $300,000. The fund plans to make payment-deferred loans of up to $35,000 to promising tech startups.
Fledgling companies must be headquartered in Alliance, a Stark County city of about 22,300 residents, or agree to move there.
The fund is being created with the help of JumpStart Inc., a Cleveland nonprofit that mentors and invests in startups.
JumpStart has helped to kick off similar funds for entrepreneurs in Barberton, Wooster and Canton.
Alliance, with its fund, is saying “not only are we going to support the companies that are here and attract new ones, we’re going to try and grow our own,” said JumpStart spokeswoman Samantha Fryberger.
Entrepreneurs and others interested in learning about the new fund can attend an informational session Thursday evening at the University of Mount Union in Alliance.
The kickoff event, which includes light refreshments, will be 5 to 7 p.m. at the Hoover-Price Campus Center, 1972 Clark Ave.
To register for the free event, call 330-506-6222 or send an email to dmitchell@tech alliance2.com with the subject line “Alliance Startup Fund Launch.”
To start the new fund, the city of Alliance took $300,000 from its longtime revolving loan fund used for more traditional business lending, such as the purchase of real estate, said Vince Marion, the city’s development director.
Marion said the city hopes the fund will serve as a way to connect with entrepreneurial students at Mount Union, as well as others in the area who have promising ideas for tech startups.
The Technology Accelerator Alliance, a business incubator with a tech-focus, is helping to get the new fund off the ground. Accelerator Alliance has space available for startups in a building near the Mount Union campus. It also has an office on campus.
Companies do not have to agree to be tenants — “portfolio companies’’ — of the incubator to receive funds.
The city got Accelerator Alliance off the ground with $180,000 in city funds being paid over a three-year period ending in 2014. Mount Union and the Alliance Area Development Board each chipped in $30,000.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.