Plug and Play Tech Center, a Silicon Valley company that bills itself as a conduit for corporate innovation and startup funding, could open a small outpost in Texas.
The Sunnyvale-based Plug and Play 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.
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, a northern suburb of Austin with a population of about 78,000. The Cedar Park Economic Development Corp. (EDC) 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 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).
