The NET Incubator:

Helping Entrepreneurs Bring New Technology to the Marketplace

The National Environmental Technology Incubator (NET Incubator) was founded in 2001 as an independent, 501 (c) 3 nonprofit corporation, an affiliate of Central State University. We bring together many partners to help technology companies, research scientists and engineers accelerate development of new technologies for the marketplace—to create jobs and drive economic growth in the Dayton/Springfield, Ohio, region.

To meet a growing demand for business incubation support, the NET Incubator recently expanded to a new 4,000-square-foot facility in the newly developed Nextedge Applied Research & Technology Park in Springfield. This is in addition to the NET Incubator’s location on the Central State University campus, in the International Water Resources Environmental Laboratory.

The NET Incubator is an advocate for the Entrepreneur. We help early stage companies from inception through profitability. The NETI offers a unique blend of services and business mentoring to support start ups with business planning, intellectual property protection, and access to development services grants and venture capital networks. Our goal is to accelerate commercialization of start up companies as they progress from early incubation to profitability with commercially viable technology products to increase job growth and new companies to the region.

The NET Incubator specializes in assisting technology companies in the areas of renewable energy, remote sensing technology, geographical information systems, new manufacturing processes and advanced materials, in line with the State of Ohio’s economic development objectives.

The NET Incubator provides entrepreneurs an array of targeted business resources and services:

Technology transfer and intellectual property protection
Affordable office and lab space
Business mentoring
Access to venture capital networks
Commercialization-specific business training
Other critically needed services in the incubation/demonstration stages of business development

We focus all of our efforts on the success of our clients. According to the Small Business Administration, nearly 50 percent of business start-ups fail within the first four years. However, companies that graduate from business incubators have an exceptional success rate; 85 percent remain in business five years after graduation.