Six Hawaii technology companies will share almost $800,000 in federal grants distributed through a state agency that helps facilitate tech industry growth locally.

The High Technology Development Corp. announced the Small Business Innovation Research grant awards Thursday and said the money will help expand research and development work.

Six companies received awards for early-stage development work: Adnoviv LLC ($79,000), Forever Oceans ($57,906), Hawaii Biotech ($100,000), Jun Innovations ($49,700), Kampachi Farms ($59,000) and Oceanit ($135,000). Two other grants for accelerating development work went to Hawaii Biotech ($191,425) and Kampachi Farms ($100,000).

CPB, Japanese alliance form business pact

Central Pacific Bank and each member bank of the TSUBASA Alliance enhancing Financial System (TSUBASA) of Japan signed memorandums of understanding Friday to mutually explore business opportunities between Japan and Hawaii through cooperation and the sharing of ideas.

TSUBASA is made up of six regional banks throughout Japan: The Chiba Bank Ltd., The Daishi Bank Ltd., The Chugoku Bank Ltd., The Iyo Bank Ltd., The Toho Bank Ltd. and The North Pacific Bank Ltd. The alliance was established to investigate and research advanced information technologies.

Hawaii is a key testing ground for Japanese firms wishing to expand to the mainland and is an attractive market because of its large Japanese-American community, which is open to Japanese products.

ON THE MOVE

Smart Real Estate announced the promotion of Rob Young to executive vice president. He joined SRE in 2015 and served as a real estate sales executive. Young has more than 10 years of experience as a top-performing sales and marketing executive, including as vice president of sales and marketing for Covenant Retirement Communities in Chicago, vice president and general manager at Lowe Enterprises as well as a reporter for KGMB for nearly eight years.

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