Purple Adobe Lavender Farm owners Elizabeth and Roger Inman. Courtesy photo
BUSINESS News:
Ten New Mexico businesses headquartered in Abiquiu, Albuquerque, Alcalde, Santa Fe and Taos have been named winners of the 2014 Venture Acceleration Fund (VAF) awards.
VAF was initiated in 2006 by Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS), the company that manages Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), to stimulate the economy by supporting growth-oriented companies.
The grant awards are administered by the Regional Development Corporation’s Los Alamos Connect program in coordination with Los Alamos National Laboratory. LANS invested $306,000, Los Alamos County invested $25,000, Santa Fe City Government invested $30,000, New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) invested $25,000 and $30,000 came from repayment to the Regional Development Corporation by a previous year VAF grant recipient.
“This year brought in more qualified applicants than ever before, and I am excited to see the improvements in the economic climate the winners will help create here in Northern New Mexico,” said Kurt Steinhaus, Los Alamos’ Community Programs Office director.
- Flow Science, Santa Fe: computational fluid dynamics modeling software packages.
- Heavy Oil Solutions, Santa Fe: converting low-grade petrochemicals into higher value products using super critical water extraction and refining.
- Keystone Restoration Ecology, Santa Fe: remote assessment of watersheds using Geographic Information Systems mapping.
- Milk+Honey, Santa Fe: expanding handmade goat milk soaps and beeswax lotion bars into the national market.
- Xpress, Santa Fe: electronic tablets to improve how health-care providers choose drugs relevant to their practice, eliminating costly pharmaceutical sales representatives.
- FLUTe, Alcalde: flexible liners for mapping groundwater contamination and municipal water supplies.
- Purple Adobe Lavender Farm, Abiquiu: expanding lavender-based body care and culinary products into the national market.
- Private Label Select, Taos: natural personal care and cosmetic for national department stores, pharmacies and large manufacturers.
- Taos Mountain Energy Bars, Taos: energy bars; to improve manufacturing and packaging and eliminate waste and ramp up production to meet demand.
- Seed Worthy, Albuquerque: start-up company provides full wrapper platform (Bow Tie) for web and application developers.
“This is an important tool in our economic development efforts,” said Kate Noble of Santa Fe. “The Venture Acceleration Fund draws out and empowers really interesting and important businesses in our region.”This Venture Acceleration Fund was originally created to commercialize technologies developed at the Lab, but now includes all types of businesses in every stage of development. The Venture Acceleration Fund is part of Los Alamos Connect, that aims to help entrepreneurs and businesses reach the next level of success and grow the economy in Northern New Mexico.
About the Venture Acceleration Fund
The VAF is a collaborative investment funded by Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS), Los Alamos County, the city of Santa Fe and New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The fund is administered by Los Alamos Connect, a program managed by the Regional Development Corporation.
About Los Alamos Connect
Los Alamos Connect (www.losalamosconnect.net) is the principal economic development investment by Los Alamos National Security, LLC the company that manages Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos Connect, administered by the Regional Development Corporation (www.rdcnm.org), provides a variety of services to help businesses achieve growth, continued success, and increase economic impact in Northern New Mexico.
