501 E Kennedy Blvd Building Exterior
Tampa Bay’s top Accelerator to move HQ to support growth of the organization
TAMPA, FLORIDA, USA, August 23, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — Tampa Bay Wave, Inc. (Wave), Florida’s #1 Accelerator that helps entrepreneurs transform innovative ideas into real-world solutions and scalable businesses through its world-class programs and services, is moving its offices into a new downtown Tampa location. This new location will better accommodate the organization’s expanding programs and growing membership. Located at 500 E. Kennedy Blvd in Tampa since June 2015, the new office is located directly across the street at 501 E. Kennedy Blvd.
The move is a testament to both the growth of the Wave organization, as well as to the growth of the greater Tampa Bay tech startup ecosystem. As the region continues to see a growing number of coworking spaces and startup hubs, Wave has continued to focus less on space for startups and more on the programs and other resources that provide direct support for accelerating the growth of their members’ companies. As Wave membership continues to grow, so has the demand for more in-person programming and services; thus Wave needed a space that had a footprint designed to support Wave’s strategic priorities.
“As our accelerator programs continue to grow, as well as our CORE membership, it has become increasingly clear that we either needed to make some significant changes to our current location or find a new location to better support all our programs and services,” said Tampa Bay Wave CEO and founder, Linda Olson. “With our new location, we will now have the ideal footprint to meet the demand of more startups seeking out our programs and hopefully the launch of new programs as well.”
Tampa Bay Wave provides a variety of services, including nationally-recognized accelerator programs, designed to connect high-growth tech startups with mentorship, early stage capital, talent, and other critical resources to help accelerate their growth while also fostering a stronger innovation-driven economy for the region. To date, Wave has supported 434 startups who collectively have raised over $550 million and created nearly 4,000 jobs, making Wave one of the critical economic drivers for the region and the state of Florida.
Wave launched its first accelerator program in March 2013, thanks to a $1 million federal grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration called the i6 Challenge Grant, awarded to a collaborative regional partnership led by Tampa Bay Wave that included the University of South Florida (USF), along with a network of universities, local businesses, nonprofits and public sector partners.
Since 2013, Wave has run 28 accelerator cohorts with programs that now recruit companies from across the U.S. and beyond. In recent years, these cohorts have included the TechDiversity Accelerator (powered by the Nielsen Foundation), the CyberTech|X Accelerator (sponsored by Bellini Better World, A-LIGN, KnowBe4, Bank of America, EY, and others), the FinTech|X Accelerator in partnership with the University of South Florida (sponsored by Encore Bank, MacDonald Ventures, DTCC, Kyle Taylor and others), and also the TechWomen Rising Accelerator (sponsored by JPMorgan Chase Foundation).
Many of Wave’s accelerator cohort companies and CORE members are also graduates of other highly-competitive programs such as Y Combinator, TechStars, Alchemist, Harvard Innovation Labs, Zeroto510, Johnson & Johnson JLabs, and TMCx. Wave’s accelerator program is also the only Florida-based accelerator program accredited by GAN (gan.co), a network of the most respected accelerators around the world.
Thanks to the generous support of its sponsors, Wave takes no equity from the founders and offers 90-day accelerator programs as no-cost to the startups. With funding by generous sponsors and donors, Wave also has scholarships available to startups with under-represented founders for certain programs.
“When Wave landed that first federal grant in 2012 and opened our venture center in the Sykes building in downtown Tampa, there were no other coworking spaces to speak of,” said Linda Olson. “So while our organization’s priorities have always put our programming first, we also offered coworking back then because the region’s entrepreneurs were in desperate need of a physical hub. Thankfully, our region has grown tremendously in the past 10 years, and there are lots of coworking options for startups. This move means we can focus on making our great programs and services even better.”
Plans for an official grand opening celebration will be announced later this year.
About Tampa Bay Wave
Tampa Bay Wave, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing entrepreneurs with facilitated access to the resources, expertise, and capital they need to grow vibrant technology-based companies in Tampa Bay. Since March 2013, Tampa Bay Wave has supported more than 400 tech startups thanks to grant funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), plus support from its economic development partners Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa. Tampa Bay Wave also receives support from individuals such as Michael and Korrine Fraser and Kyle Taylor, founder of The Penny Hoarder, as well as from partners such as A-LIGN, Bank of America, Bellini Better World, Encore Bank/STi, EY, Florida Blue, Florida Business Development Corporation (FBDC0, Florida Funders, Foley & Lardner, \JPMorgan Chase Foundation, KnowBe4, MacDonald Ventures, Nielsen Foundation, Rays/Rowdies Foundation, Tampa Bay Ventures, Tampa Electric, Trenam 1 Law, Truist Foundation, and Vinik Family Foundation. Tampa Bay Wave is also a member of the GAN network of accelerators. For more information, visit www.tampabaywave.org
Dee Garcia
Tampa Bay Wave, Inc.
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