Less than a month after announcing a new initiative to attract and retain tech startups in McKinney, one local company and the community are starting to see the benefits.
Blockit, a DFW-based healthcare SaaS startup, announced receiving one of the first grants from McKinney Economic Development Corporation’s Innovation Fund to expand its operations in the city. Financial terms of the grant were not disclosed.
“The city and the environment have been positive, we benefit from the growth of our industry here,” said Jake McCarley, Blockit CEO, in a prepared statement. “It is providing a solution specific to startup scalability that most current economic incentives do not. The McKinney EDC team also knows the lifecycle of a startup and that shows in this new incentive program.”
The company was launched in 2016. Its health tech platform works to connect different data systems in the healthcare industry, improving patient flow and outcome. The platform allows users real-time calendar availability and scheduling collaboration, among other things.
Blockit closed on the first of a two-part $152,000 Seed Round of funding in 2016, finalizing the second part in February 2017. The round was led by Blockit co-founders McCarley and Mark Carver, and was joined by a group of strategic advisors.
The company plans to use the Innovation fund grant to expand its headquarters at the Cotton Mill near downtown McKinney, which also formerly served as the HQ for other North Texas startups like Bossfight Entertainment and Words with Friends. As part of the physical expansion, Blockit plans to bring on 18 new software engineers in the next three years, which will bring its total team size to 31. Blockit said it will help with its goals of growth and sustainability.
“This is the age of social media for crying out loud. You can see what your friends from high school had for dinner, but you can't see scheduling options for a specialist you work with all the time,” Carver said in a prepared statement at the time of Blockit’s Seed funding. “But providers can now free themselves and their patients from these kinds of frustrations.”
The McKinney EDC’s Innovation Fund was launched in late January as a way to diversify the local economy, as well as develop a high-density innovation ecosystem. With requirements like having a minimum number of employees and keeping your business in McKinney for at least three years, the fund offers businesses a number of grant options. Grants are available to most business types operating in the tech sector. It is designed to help startups recruit talent, expand business and increase skills development, among other things.
The MEDC is also working to develop a tech competition later this year as part of the Innovation Fund.
“We’re creating an ecosystem and building the framework for our innovation corridor through this fund,” said Danny Chavez, senior VP at the McKinney EDC.
