Moving Forward

A recently announced federal grant will help provide another tool for St. Landry and surrounding parishes to start and grow new businesses.

South Louisiana entrepreneurs could be in line for start-up funds, professional guidance and technical assistance under a new Accelerate Acadiana program supported by a $700,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

The federal funds will be matched with services and office space valued at $754,000 from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and emerging business programs already in place at the Community Foundation of Acadiana and the Lafayette Economic Development Authority.

The non-profit economic development group Winrock International helped get the grant and will help set up a local program modeled after a similar one in Arkansas.

The announcement was made by INNOV8 Acadiana, which plans to launch two $400,000 investment funds that will provide seed capital to companies chosen for the accelerator program, according to its director Pete Prados.

“This new program could become an important adjunct to the Cajun Acceleration Station that has been working in St. Landry Parish since 2010 to help start-ups get to their goals smarter, faster, better,” according to St. Landry economic development director Bill Rodier.  “Our center has helped speed the growth of an increasing number of new businesses in St. Landry Parish, and this new development will help us do even more.”

Accelerate Acadiana will focus on new services and products in five sectors: health care, oil and gas, technology, aviation and manufacturing.

Rodier agreed with Prados that the federal grant helps showcase south Louisiana as “a great place for innovative new companies to launch and thrive.”

“When the EDA looked around the United States for the best place to replicate the Arkansas model, they chose us,” Prados said.

“That’s important to St. Landry Parish,” Rodier said, “because over the past several years we have been gaining momentum in our economic development effort, and have been finding a growing interest in our many assets from investors from across the nation. Anything that causes more of them to look harder at south Louisiana gives us the opportunity to show the world who we are and what we can offer.”

Rodier noted that the prestigious Site Selectionpublication last month named Louisiana to its Top 10 list of Best States for Business for the seventh year in a row. “That enhances the state’s reputation as a top location for business investment and job creation,” he said, “and selection for grants such as this one by the EDA helps us to get decision makers to particularly look even harder at south Louisiana.

“In that way, the grant can help bring outside businesses to St. Landry, but most importantly it will help us create and grow the small businesses that are the backbone of every local economy,” Rodier said.

Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Don Pierson called the grant “an exciting addition to the economic development landscape of the Acadiana region.”

“Programs such as this one can broaden economies by nurturing new companies, supporting research and development, and fostering innovation,” he said.