Central Florida University supports the creation of a StarterCorps seed fund.
Central Florida University (UCF), along with Rollins College, has supported the creation of a new seed fund dubbed StarterCorps. UCF also applied for a grant from the Orlando city council to take the fund to $250,000.
Voting on November 3, 2014, the city council committed to providing the requested $50,000 in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Reaching the $250,000 limit allows StarterCorps to apply for matching grant funding from the US Economic Development Administration to increase the fund to $500,000.
It is expected that the US administration will decide in February or March 2015 whether to match the funding. The fund will still go ahead if matching funding is denied, in which case it will look for alternative funding sources.
StarterCorps is headed by Kirstie Chadwick, who was previously director at UCF’s VentureLab.
Kirstie Chadwick, executive director at StarterCorps, said: “It is huge because of the fact that it was the city and it was a significant cash contribution to that match, what that shows the Economic Development Administration is we are serious. We are dead serious.”