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- Registration Open for The Innovation Funding Journey
- Section 174 Updates
- Launchpad for Innovation: SBIR Grants
- SBTDC’s 2025 Graduate Summer Internship Program Wraps Up
- Client Profile – Scale Social
- Equity Funding Update – H1 2025
- NCIDEA Grant Programs – Application Open
- NC Biotech Center Grants for University Researchers – Deadlines Coming Up
- NC Innovation Awards 17 Projects
- Launch Chapel Hill Accelerator
| | Registration Open – The Innovation Funding Journey on 10/1 - Hybrid | | |
Ready to map out sources of capital for your firm’s funding journey?
Join us for a full-day event designed to help North Carolina innovators and entrepreneurs navigate the complex world of funding. From federal R&D grants and state-supported programs to legal resources, loans, and equity investment, this event features expert insights, funding organization overviews, and real-world lessons from successful grant and equity recipients.
The sources of capital that innovation-based small business can tap into varies based on stage of development of the innovation and the business. Three buckets of funding are non-dilutive (grants/contracts), loans and equity capital. Attend this session with the goal of mapping out how each of the funding options will fit into the lifecycle of your business.
Whether you’re just starting out or ready to scale, this event will equip you with the knowledge and connections to build your funding roadmap. Over a dozen funding experts will present and be available for networking.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn, network, and take the next step in funding your business growth!
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Date: Wednesday, October 1, 2025
Time: 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Agenda and Registration: sbtdc.org/events/the-innovation-funding-journey
Location: Virtual or in-person at NC Biotechnology Center in Durham
| | Section 174 Updates – Tax Implications for SBIR/STTR Awardees | | |
After several years of uncertainty and advocacy, Congress has enacted a critical fix to the treatment of U.S.-based research and development (R&D) expenditures under Internal Revenue Code Section 174. The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, signed into law in early 2025, reverses the burdensome requirement implemented under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which had mandated the amortization of domestic R&D expenses over five years starting in 2022.
Under the Revised Law:
- Full immediate expensing of domestic R&D costs is once again permitted, effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2021.
- The reform applies retroactively, allowing taxpayers—particularly eligible small businesses—to either:
- Claim a catch-up deduction for previously capitalized domestic R&D expenses incurred from 2022 to 2024, or
- Amend prior-year returns to reflect full expensing, thereby recovering previously deferred deductions.
| | Launchpad for Innovation: SBIR Grants as a Catalyst for Small Business Growth | | |
The SBTDC’s Tech Commercialization Team is pleased to share our article published in the annual Research North Carolina section of the Business NC Magazine, July edition. The article provides highlights of two North Carolina-based SBIR/STTR awardees BMI OrganBank and ARTx, SBIR/STTR impacts on the state’s innovation economy and SBTDC’s services.
“Solve this riddle: Your innovation-based company is in the development phase of what could be a life-altering technology. You need funding to complete the prototype, but equity investors and banks aren’t interested in offering money to a company that hasn’t commercialized their product yet. You and your team know that the technology you’re developing could have a significant impact on your industry, but from an investor’s perspective, your company is high-risk. So how do you fund it?”
| | SBTDC’s 2025 Graduate Summer Internship Program Wraps Up | | |
The SBTDC’s Technology Commercialization Graduate Summer internship program wrapped up in July. Marking the 24th anniversary of this long-standing program, 32 innovation-based small businesses across North Carolina were linked with 17 graduate level students, from seven university programs, over an 11-week period and engaged with their innovation-based clients on a variety of business development projects.
Throughout the course of the program, members of the SBTDC Tech Commercialization Team provided expert mentorship and guidance to interns as they worked toward their client deliverables. A shoutout to team members for their support: Ramya Vijapurapu, Andrea Giska, Connor Steenbock and Kevin Nicusanti.
Not only do students provide significant business development support, they learn a great deal about working in an entrepreneurial environment, scaling innovation-based small businesses and consulting.
Interns shared the following:
- “Not every internship gives you the opportunity to work directly alongside passionate founders.”
- “The more you embrace the discomfort and uncertainty, the more impactful and rewarding your experience will be.”
- “I saw this internship as an ideal platform to apply my skills in a real-world context and contribute to the growth of innovative companies within North Carolina.”
- “The experience of working closely with startups and seeing your work directly impact their growth is incredibly rewarding.”
- “As an entrepreneur myself, this experience provided valuable insights into the challenges and strategies of other start-ups.”
We congratulate our 2025 cohort on joining an alumni base of over 250 interns that have taken part in the program since 2002.
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SBTDC Client Profile: Scale Social AI
Scaling Authentic Marketing – Empowering Real Customer Voices with AI
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Company Overview
Founded in early 2024, Scale Social AI is a North Carolina-based startup led by CEO Runbin Dong. The founding team combines AI and martech expertise from companies like IBM Watson and Amazon, along with hands-on experience building local food and beverage businesses.
Scale Social AI’s core product, ReelScale, is a marketing platform that transforms real customer photos and videos into short-form video ads. Using AI, the platform helps food and beverage franchises turn everyday customer moments into high-performing, authentic content that increases local foot traffic, strengthens brand trust, and improves customer retention.
SBTDC Engagement
The SBTDC Tech Commercialization team has provided valuable support, including one-on-one counseling, grant strategy, pitch review, and investor connections. This support continues to guide the company’s approach to growth and strategic funding.
| | Equity Funding Update – H1 2025 | | |
The first half of 2025 was disappointing to some in the NC venture capital space, as seen in the lower year-on-year fundings of start-ups. Many commentators have blamed the VC investment headwinds of rapid change of Federal policies and general market confusion (new tariffs, educational grant system disruption, pending tax legislation, de-valued dollar), all while the stock market has roared to new heights. The VC market is seeing some positives in increased exit activity and a few IPO’s both of which excite the venture capital market. There is rising optimism for the second half of 2025 especially around Tech/AI, but also some weariness of constant changes in government policy impacting start-ups.
Here is a comparison of the number of deals and funding values from 9 counties around the Triangle region in NC - Half 1 of 2025 vs full year 2024:
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With this data, it appears that 2025 may fall short of 2024 in deals and funding, but not impossible for big 2nd half 2025.
Data is sourced from DealRoom, a service provided by CED.
| | NCIDEA Grant Programs – Application Open | | |
Whether you have just launched a startup or are looking to grow and scale your company, NC IDEA offers two different grants:
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NC IDEA MICRO awards $10K project-based grants to young companies looking to validate assumptions and develop a business model.
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NC IDEA SEED offers $50K grants to early stage companies, often the critical funding they need to scale faster.
Applicants may only apply to either MICRO or SEED (not both) during the grant cycle.
More information about both programs, eligibility criteria and application guidance are available at ncidea.org/fall-2025-grant-cycle/
| | NC Biotechnology Center Grants for University Researchers – Deadlines Coming Up | | |
Translational Research Grants
The Translational Research Grant (TRG) program funds research projects that explore commercial applications or initiate the early commercial development of university-held life sciences inventions. The technology must have the potential to solve a real-world problem as a commercial product in the life sciences sector.
Applicants must be researchers employed by a North Carolina-based university or nonprofit research institute. Technical projects may be conducted at awardee institutions or outsourced to contract research organizations.
Up to $130,000 may be requested for technical and business development activities. An additional $14,000 supplement is available to support a project manager.
Pre-submission consultations with NCBiotech staff are strongly recommended.
Deadline: Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025 (noon)
Award Announcements: Dec. 2025
Flash Grants
The Flash Grant program aims to identify and energize creative ideas that exhibit early indications of commercial potential. The funding is designed to demonstrate the disruptive potential of a life sciences technoloy and prepare a technology for translational development.
This solicitation is open to proposals focused on topics related to agricultural and marine fungi or antifungal life sciences research within North Carolina, except human health applications, Class I medical devices, consumer products, or mobile apps.
Funds are available to researchers at any North Carolina university or non-profit research institute.
A maximum of $30,000 may be requested for projects of up to 12 months.
Deadline: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025 (noon)
Award Announcements: Dec. 2025
| | NC Innovation Awards 17 Projects | | |
NCInnovation, a non-profit organization that helps unlock the innovative potential of North Carolina’s public universities, approved $13.6 million in R&D funding for 17 research projects at 12 universities. The R&D grants will support applied research that has already achieved proof of concept in a wide variety of technology segments.
Grant applications undergo a multi-phase review process that included a pre-application, a full application, an external expert review panel, and a market fit assessment. Only university researchers, not private companies, are eligible for NCInnovation grants.
| | Launch Chapel Hill Accelerator | | |
Launch Chapel Hill, along with KPMG, a global leader in professional services, offers Launch Powered by KPMG—an AI-enabled, next-generation accelerator model open to all innovators, with or without a UNC affiliation.
The 6 week accelerator integrates Launch’s expertise and KPMG’s extensive capabilities to provide companies access to industry insights and enterprise connections. The accellerator concludes with a Demo Day Pitch event.
Startups considering applying to the Spring 2026 accelerator can learn more and meet participating founders at the upcoming Demo Day event on 10/21 for the fall cohort.
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About Us
The Technology Commercialization Services team provides one-on-one business counseling and advice to small business owners, university researchers, and entrepreneurs looking to advance their innovations to the marketplace.
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