Iowa Innovation Corporation

Supports Iowa innovation initiatives through a venture and accelerator model rather than direct grant funding.

Iowa Innovation Corporation is an Iowa nonprofit innovation intermediary coordinated under BioConnect Iowa. It is not a direct grant maker; its public role is to move scalable startups toward market through the Iowa Go-To-Market Accelerator. The record ties its work to biosciences, ag-tech, advanced manufacturing, and software.

The accelerator runs for six months and serves Iowa-based startups. Applications are rolling, with review by a VentureNet Iowa panel and a pitch step. The current program record does not publish cash awards to startups, so its value is in hands-on mentorship, networks, and investor access rather than a public grant size. It also notes April and October cohort timing.

IICorp received a 2020 U.S. Economic Development Administration Build-to-Scale Venture Challenge award of USD 525,000 in federal funds, or USD 1.29 million total with matching, to support G2M. The active presence sits with iowag2m.org and BioConnect Iowa, which helps distinguish the corporation from the separate Iowa Innovation Council advisory body under IEDA.