Three more Rhode Island companies are the recipients of the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation‘s Innovation Vouchers, the organization announced early this week.
Pawtucket-based Cooley Group, Warwick-based Kenney Manufacturing and Providence-based The Compost Plant received grants of $50,000, $50,000 and $49,092, respectively.
Upon approval, that will mark 62 companies receiving such grants, totaling nearly $3 million in total funds.
Cooley Group, "a global manufacturer of high-performance polymeric solutions," will use the funds to continue its work turning current billboards into smart billboards with the University of Rhode Island.
Kenney Manufacturing, a manufacturer of drapery hardware and shower bars, will use its funds "to develop new, cost efficient processes to manufacture hardware in multiple finishes for which there is increasing consumer demand," a press release on the vouchers states.
Lastly, The Compost Plant, a "leader in organics collection" in Rhode Island, will use its grant towards work with URI’s College of Environmental Life Sciences.
Facilitated by the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation, the Innovation Voucher program was created to increase research and development work in the Ocean State.
In its third year, the program provides enterprises employing less than 500 workers with grants of up to $50,000, to fund said research and development work with a Rhode Island research facility, university or medical center.
“Our Innovation Grants give startups the spark they need to turn their ideas into businesses,” Governor Gina Raimondo has said of the program. “Our state is on the move.”
