Emerging Technology Fund (ETF)

The Texas Emerging Technology Fund

The NTXRCIC is one of seven regional agents tasked with identifying technology based entrepreneurial ventures for investment from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (ETF). Established in 2005 the Texas legislature passed House Bill 1765 that created an investment fund to accelerate the commercialization of applied research from lab to market and provide start-up capital for scalable businesses that would generate wealth and high-quality jobs for Texas communities. The legislation set in motion Texas’ commitment to take innovation from lab to market through fostering applied research initiatives among the state’s Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) and providing capital to vetted emerging technology companies. Today the State of Texas is a leader in taking ideas from an embryonic stage to creating competitive scalable companies.

A 17-member advisory committee of high-tech leaders, successful entrepreneurs and research experts review potential projects that meet the ETF criteria. The advisory committee then recommends funding allocations to the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House. The Texas ETF was established to:

To date the ETF has allocated more than $143.9 million in commercialization funds to 108 early stage companies and $159.5 million in grant matching and research superiority funds to Texas universities. The total invested by the ETF to date is $303 million. The North Texas Regional Center for Innovation & Commercialization (NTXRCIC) is one of six regional agents tasked with identifying technology based entrepreneurial ventures for investment from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (ETF)