Technology businesses land $23M in state, federal grants

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A dozen Hawaii technology companies have snagged $23 million in state and federal grants.

AND THE AWARDS GO TO …

Twelve companies that have won small-business innovation research grant awards (state/federal):

Hawaii Biotech ($30,000/$100,000)

Kampachi Farms LLC ($30,000/$100,000)

Oceanit Laboratories ($40,000/$80,000)

Diagenetix Inc. ($49,000/$99,564)

Nalu Scientific LLC ($74,548/$150,000)

Hawaii Fish Co. ($146,250/$450,000)

Terasys Technologies ($162,000/$1 million)

Studio Kinection ($320,000/$1.7 million)

Makai Ocean Engineering ($325,000/$1.5 million)

Hawaii Evolutionary Development LLC ($346,750/$998,597)

HNu Photonics ($350,000/$1 million)

Spectrum Photonics ($399,985/$1.3 million)

The High Technology Development Corp., a state agency facilitating development of a bigger tech industry locally, announced the awards Tuesday.

HTDC gave out $3.3 million to the companies, and said the same firms received nearly $20 million from a variety of federal agencies.

“In today’s competitive global landscape, these grants help to support our local businesses as they create new and unique products,” Luis Salaveria, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, said in a statement. “We are committed to supporting entrepreneurs and small-business owners who help drive Hawaii’s economy.”

Robbie Melton, HTDC executive director and CEO, said the state and federal Small Business Innovation Research grants are intended to help companies move from research and development work to delivering products to commercial markets. Melton also said that only 20 percent of companies that apply for the federal grants receive them.

“The fact that these companies were awarded federal SBIR grants is a testament to the important research they are doing,” she said in a statement.

Companies that received awards include firms working on the fifth generation (5G) of wireless network technology, marine fish that eat invasive algae and dengue fever prevention.

HTDC also said it awarded $1 million to three companies as part of a two-year pilot program to develop energy projects funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research. The three firms are Makai Ocean Engineering ($400,000), Navatek Ltd. ($300,000) and Oceanit Laboratories ($300,000). The federal government also awarded $3 million to Makai Ocean, $6.9 million to Navatek and $1.4 million to Oceanit.

Correction: Makai Ocean Engineering received a federal Office of Naval Research grant for $3 million, not $43 million as reported in a Page B6 story Wednesday.