Update: Cedar Park City Council and the Cedar Park Economic Development Type A Corp. voted this past week in favor of incentives for three companies, including Plug and Play Tech Center. For the latest, go here.
Original story: Plug and Play Tech Center, a Silicon Valley-based company that bills itself as a conduit for corporate innovation and startup funding, could open a small outpost in Cedar Park.
The company essentially has a two-pronged business approach: it runs a corporate innovation platform that big companies can use to tap into new ideas, while also connecting, mentoring and investing in startups. It's a model somewhat similar to Capital Factory in Austin.
Plug and Play employs around 700 people total, has more than 50 locations around the globe and has deployed at least $110 million into 1,000-plus startups since its founding in 2008, according to its website and city documents.
Plug and Play LLC is seeking an incentives deal from Cedar Park. The Cedar Park Economic Development Corp. would invest an initial $1 million into Plug and Play, and in return the EDC would serve on its advisory board and help select startups for an advanced manufacturing accelerator program that the firm would create as part of the agreement. The program would include mentorship, workshops, connections to corporate partners and access to funding, according to city documents. The deal is for three years with an option to renew for two more.
Under the proposed deal, the company would also need to occupy a facility in Cedar Park during the term of the agreement and employ at least four people full-time. Plug and Play would host mentorship events and other kinds of programming, which could result in additional investments or credits returned back to the EDC.
This appears to be the first Plug and Play location in Texas, according to its website.
The push into Cedar Park is being overseen by Plug and Play Ventures partner Kevin Parakkattu, who is based in Austin. He said the company is still looking for office space in the Williamson County suburb but that Plug and Play leaders are interested in the region because of a "strong cohort" of corporations, which is key to its business model.
"We're incredibly excited about Cedar Park," he said.
Parakkattu said advanced manufacturing is the initial focus because of the large and growing Central Texas outposts of companies like Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and NXP Semiconductors NV (Nasdaq: NXPI).
"The whole focus is to help those companies by giving them access to the corporations that are part of our programming," he said.
Plug and Play's past clients include Walmart Inc. (Nasdaq: WMT), The Procter and Gamble Co. (Nasdaq: PG), Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and PepsiCo Inc. (Nasdaq: PEP).
Plug and Play is one of three companies up for incentives votes this week in the suburb northwest of Austin. The others are Compedia USA Inc. and Prescription Dispensing Laboratories Inc. The Cedar Park Economic Development Type A Corp. and Cedar Park City Council are set to discuss the projects at meetings on Aug. 22 and Aug. 24, respectively.
