CCF grants support startups, critical early technology testing and market validation efforts

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES, August 31, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC), today announced that OccasionGenius has been awarded a Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) grant for $75,000. VIPC’s CCF programs have distributed more than $52 million to Virginia-based startups, entrepreneurs and university-based inventors since 2012.

Based in Richmond, Va., OccasionGenius aggregates, curates, enhances and keeps up-to-date leisure events in cities in the US and around the world, and provides these listings to its enterprise clients via API. OccasionGenius’ clients, which include hotel chains and airlines, then offer curated location-specific leisure events to their own customers. Post-pandemic, OccasionGenius has been scaling rapidly; this CCF grant will help OccasionGenius build and expand its platform to handle up to 15 million upcoming events.

“We are thrilled to have been selected for a CCF award,” said Nate Marcus, CEO and co-founder of OccasionGenius. “This grant furthers our groundbreaking work as the world's leading event discovery technology company and helps us meet the increasing demand for our innovative service.” OccasionGenius provides access to highly engaging content across multiple verticals, including hotels, airlines, marketing companies and dating apps.

“We are pleased to award a CCF grant to OccasionGenius,” said Jeanette Townsend, VIPC’s Director for Private Sector Grants. “VIPC’s CCF grant program plays an essential role in getting funding to Virginia-based pre-seed and seed-stage startups when they need it most. Our goal is to help Virginia companies grow and lead the nation in innovation, opportunity, and job creation. OccasionGenius continues to scale by acquiring new enterprise customers and by adding automation to its event discovery and curation processes, and we look forward to their continued success.”

About the Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF)
VIPC’s Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) awards funding on a rolling basis to Virginia’s small businesses and university-based innovators. The CCF Private Sector program seeks to fund high-potential Virginia-based for-profit technology companies at the early stage of commercialization. The grants support early technology and market validation efforts such as the development of prototypes or a minimum viable product (MVP), customer pilots, intellectual property protection, and more. For more information on funding opportunities and eligibility requirements, or to apply, visit the CCF pages at www.VirginiaIPC.org.

About Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)
VIPC: Connecting innovators with opportunities. As the nonprofit operations arm of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA), VIPC is the commercialization and seed stage economic development driver in the Commonwealth that leads funding, infrastructure, and policy initiatives to support Virginia's innovators, entrepreneurs, startups, and market development strategies. VIPC collaborates with local, regional, state, and federal partners to support the expansion and diversification of Virginia’s economy.

Programs include: Virginia Venture Partners (VVP) | VVP Fund of Funds (SSBCI) | Virginia Founders Fund (VFF) |Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) | Petersburg Founders Fund (PFF) | Smart Communities | The Virginia Smart Community Testbed | The Virginia Unmanned Systems Center | Virginia Advanced Air Mobility Alliance (VAAMA) | The Public Safety Innovation Center |Entrepreneurial Ecosystems | Regional Innovation Fund (RIF) | Federal Funding Assistance Program (FFAP) for SBIR & STTR | University Partnerships | Startup Company Mentoring & Engagement. For more information, please visit www.VirginiaIPC.org. Follow VIPC on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Angela Costello, Vice President of Communications
Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)
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