The Baltimore Development Corp. has hired the leader of a major Maryland venture fund to restart itstechnology development program.
Arti Santhanam, currently the executive director of the Maryland Technology Development Corp.'s (TEDCO) Maryland Innovation Initiative, will now be charged with bringing the Emerging Technology Centers back to life as its executive director starting February 1. The BDC shut down the ETC in 2023, putting an end to one of the largest incubators in the Baltimore region after the declining office market from the pandemic caused rental income at its popular coworking space to plummet. Santhanam wants to focus on helping later-stage companies in Baltimore attract funding and push for growth, compared to the ETC's previous focus on early stage startups.
The opportunity to create an entrepreneurial program from a blank slate without having to follow many preconceived guidelines attracted Santhanam to the job. The BDC was open to many of Santhanam’s ideas to change the ETC early on in the interview process, she said.
“That was a welcome surprise,” Santhanam said. “That tells me that they are open to new ideas and some adventure.”
The TEDCO administrator has plenty of experience working with startups. In 2016, she took over the Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII), a TEDCO fund that gives out $6.1 million a year to promote the commercialization of technologies from universities. The MII under Santhanam helped start 176 companies, the majority of them in the life sciences industry. Santhanam hopes the position at the ETC will give her the opportunity to work more hands-on with startups.
“Dr. Santhanam’s dedication to TEDCO, MII and Maryland has known no bounds. We are extremely grateful for her leadership, which has expanded MII’s program and the growth of Maryland’s diverse and innovative ecosystem,” said Troy LeMaile-Stovall, TEDCO CEO, in a news release. “Her new position at ETC is an extension of this dedication, and we're delighted to support her in this journey."
The ETC under Santhanam will build a venture studio instead of an incubator or accelerator. Venture studios work with later-stage companies that have already started to earn some venture capital funding while accelerators tend to work with very early-stage entrepreneurs. Venture studios are also more focused, only working with a few companies at a time instead of cohorts of 10 or more companies. Santhanam hopes this new approach can help solve the funding gap between early-stage seed funding and later, large series A and B rounds that often doom aspiring firms. She plans to focus on thebiotech and artificial intelligence industries to take full advantage of the federal tech hub designation.
“These are all good technologies with strong [intellectual property], but it's not really going anywhere,” Santhanam said. “We felt like there was a need for another level of support that can be brought to these companies to help scale them up.”
Santhanam plans to foster public-private partnerships by hiring advisers to assist startups or welcoming private investment into the venture studio.
"We are thrilled about the relaunch of ETC under Dr. Santhanam’s leadership," BDC CEO Colin Tarbert said in a news release. “Her experience at TEDCO and her vision for ETC will undoubtedly drive the organization to new heights, and we’re eager to see the positive changes she will bring to Baltimore's startup landscape."
