Ann Arbor Spark

Business Development (Expansion, Attraction, Retention): SPARK maximizes potential jobs and capital investment in the region and helps grow the region's GDP through the retention and expansion of established driving industry companies and the targeted attraction domestically and internationally of similar companies that fit the region's identified clusters. This is done by regular communication with local businesses to determine their needs, making key business introductions, assisting with site selection, collaborating with local municipalities, and assisting companies in working with local academic partners to communicate talent needs.This year SPARK supported these major Washtenaw County companies: North Star Clean Energy, Leibherr's, Tortillas Tita, and the University of Michigan. Additionally, with 17 successful company growth projects, the team facilitated new investment commitments totaling more than $97 million. These projects led to the creating of 541 new jobs and the retention of 657 existing ones.

Communication and Community Engagement: SPARK uses its established platform of social media followers, website traffic, and brand awareness to expand local, regional, statewide, national, and global awareness of the Ann Arbor region's attractiveness for business location and career and life opportunities. SPARK also promotes community events that market the region as a great place to start a business and/or work for a start-up. Our weeklong series of events, A2TECH360, had 20 total events and over 2,400 registered attendees, 1.2 million social media views as well as 161k webpage views.

Capital Funding - Michigan Angel Fund & SPARK capital (formerly Michigan Pre-seed Fund): The mission of our funding programs is to support high-tech companies throughout the state at their earliest stages of development and position these high-growth companies to be able to raise additional capital and investments. Capital programs are an intentional economic development tool that pays itself back, allowing the funds to be redeployed for future reinvestment into more companies. With 155 members, the Michigan Angel Fund (MAF) is the largest angel organization in Michigan. The group has 40 companies, filling an important funding gap by investing in very early-stage companies across the state that are not yet primed for venture and other sources of capital. MAF is managed by Ann Arbor SPARK and invested $521K into 6 companies.