Blackstone Accelerates Growth Funding Period Ends, Mainebiz Reports
Mainebiz reported funds for Blackstone Accelerates Growth, a $3 million initiative launched in 2011 by the Blackstone Charitable Foundation, will run out this fall and won’t be renewed in the program’s current form. Blackstone Accelerates Growth is a partnership among the Maine Technology Institute, the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development and the Foster Center for Student Innovation at the University of Maine. The Blackstone Charitable Foundation is reengineering its giving, so the Maine partners will focus on other ways to get money, including from the foundation, according to the report. Blackstone Accelerates Growth has helped expand the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development’s Top Gun program, create the Accelerated Ventures program, the Foster Center’s Innovate for Maine Fellows program and Maine Startup and Create Week, which debuted last year, the article states. The effort also set up innovation hubs in Portland and Bangor.