Orlando, UCF leaders celebrate opening of new innovation hub downtown

ORLANDO, Fla. — Mayor Buddy Dyer and UCF President Dr. Alexander Cartwright celebrated the opening of a new tech startup and innovation hub in downtown Orlando Tuesday.

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The University of Central Florida’s Business Incubation Program provides companies in their early stages with the “tools, training, and infrastructure to become financially stable, high-growth/impact enterprises.”

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The new location in the Kress Building on Orange Ave. will be home to both the Incubation Program and “StarterStudio,” a Central Florida-based tech accelerator that works to raise the area’s profile in the eyes of investors by building up the local tech startup “ecosystem.”

Together, the two organizations aim to help diversify the Central Florida economy through entrepreneurial partnerships.

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“If you look at how other communities have grown, it has been around clusters of private enterprise, entrepreneur, universities, working together to help accelerate growth of these companies,” UCF Director of Innovation Districts, Strategy, and Partnerships Rob Panepinto said.

Since it was launched in 1999, UCF’s Business Incubation Program has assisted more than 300 local startup companies.

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