A program that saw the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency fund geospatial startups is "on hiatus," the federal agency said.
NGA doesn’t plan to stage any iterations of its NGA accelerator program in the near future, a spokeswoman for the agency said in an email. NGA launched the accelerator through a partnership agreement with Missouri Technology Corp., a public-private organization that’s part of state government. The NGA spokeswoman said the hiatus comes as the federal agency works on "establishing and aligning funding for follow-on programs” in its partnership with MTC.
While NGA doesn't have immediate plans to continue the program, another geospatial-focused local group says it is working to possibly launch a similar program to continue to connect innovative companies in the industry with the St. Louis region.
The NGA Accelerator launched in 2020 as a partnership between MTC and NGA, and was operated by St. Louis-based startup accelerator Capital Innovators. It focused on supporting startups pursuing "government and industry opportunities in alignment with the NGA's technology focus areas, including data management and artificial intelligence.” When the program launched in 2020, NGA said it would initially underwrite two iterations of the program. It later signed on to support a third. NGA's launch of the program came as the federal agency is building its new $1.7 billion western headquarters in North City, with the facility expected to open in 2026.
NGA staged the accelerator program three times, twice in 2021 and once in 2022, supporting a total of 24 companies that were each provided $100,000 in non-dilutive funding and participated in a 13-week business development program. Companies received access to office space in St. Louis, mentoring from NGA employees and networking opportunities. The accelerator held in-person programming at Moonshot Labs, the NGA’s unclassified innovation center inside the T-Rex downtown incubator.
The groups behind the NGA Accelerator heralded its program as a success, saying the program deepened connections between geospatial startups and the St. Louis region. A press release from November said that fewer than 20% of the 24 startups that participated in the program had a relationship to St. Louis before the accelerator and that about 80% of companies continued to have ties to the region after the program’s conclusion, with four startups having developed a “substantial presence” in St. Louis. The NGA Accelerator earlier this year was recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer with its "FLC Star of 2023" award for the state and local economic benefits generated by the program. An article published on NGA's website about the award said NGA invested $6.6 million to stage the three iterations of the accelerator program and that it provided $2.4 million in follow-on contracts to companies that participated in the accelerator program.
“The accelerator served as a foundational element that can be built upon as the region strives to create a world-class geospatial ecosystem in St. Louis that can serve as a bridge between the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and the NGA’s commitment to the region,” said Jack Scatizzi, executive director of MTC. “The NGA Accelerator demonstrated that a St. Louis-based geospatial accelerator with strong ties to the subject matter expertise within the NGA that can significantly ‘accelerate’ promising early-stage geospatial companies and have a positive economic development impact on the region.
The NGA Accelerator’s launch followed the June 2020 release of the GeoFutures report, a strategic plan focused on positioning St. Louis as a “global center of geospatial excellence.” Andy Dearing, lead of GeoFutures, said the initiative has "prioritized the need for accelerating innovation capacity as a key priority area for 2023,” and efforts are underway to possibly continue a St. Louis accelerator program focused on geospatial technology.
"The GeoFutures coalition has expressed a desire to continue this type of effort, as the impacts from the accelerator directly aligned with priorities from the GeoFutures Roadmap. The coalition is exploring opportunities to continue an effort like this, and discussing options with regional stakeholders to continue the successes brought to the ecosystem through NGA and the Accelerator," Dearing said.
The NGA Accelerator launched as an initiative of the NGA’s partnership intermediary agreement with MTC. That agreement, aimed at forging stronger connections between the federal agency and Missouri's startup community, runs through the spring of 2025 and could include future programming, NGA and MTC said.
"The NGA Accelerator is hopefully one of many programs that MTC can pilot to catalyze innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the state and we look forward to working with the NGA on additional projects within the region through our partnership intermediary agreement," Scatizzi said.
