News

The owners of Banyan Technology moved in 2001 to Lorain County with an idea for meeting a need for new technology in the shipping industry. Since then through shepherding by the Great Lakes Innovation Development Enterprise, or GLIDE, and renting office space in a Desich Business and Entrepreneurship Building, Banyan grew to 24 employees.

It’s safe to say Garrett Nees’ grandfather, a farmer all his life, was skeptical when he heard the 18-year-old say he had found a new way to improve their crop yield. “My grandpa thought I was crazy,” he says, unable to hold back a laugh. The family-owned farm in Breeda, Iowa, is home to hogs, cattle and thousands of acres of corn, so much corn that it’s impossible to gain an accurate assessment of the crop on foot. Nees would have to take to the air.

A slew of high-tech medical projects are getting a financial boost from the Ohio Third Frontier program. Eight of the 10 projects that received funding were related to medical technology. And eight of the 10 projects were based in Northeast Ohio, according to a news release from the Third Frontier, a technology-focused economic development program.

Event 38, the Akron drone maker that I wrote about in September, is flying ever higher. The young company was just awarded $25,000 from the Innovation Fund of GLIDE, the Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise, to expand its eye-in-the-sky capability.

Wednesday, the region’s nonprofit Innovation Fund said it has awarded $25,000 to Event 38, as well another Akron startup, BioMendics LLC, which is developing a gel to heal wounds. The fund is designed to help young companies at early stages of development.