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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT › 64 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2017 new companies in the technology sector. Since 2012, CTNext has funded more than 1,100 companies and provided non- financial support to more than 1,600. CTNext began its existence as a sub- sidiary of Connecticut Innovations, the state's quasi-public technology investment organization. But last year, CTNext be- came an independent agency as the result of a new state law. "This change really speaks to the commitment of the legislature and of state government to the state's entrepreneurial community," Thames said. "As we became a new entity, we were able to launch new programming." Two of the new programs CTNext has launched over the last five months are Innovation Places and the agency's Higher Education Initiative. "Innovation Places has 12 active com- munities around the state that are involved in on-the-ground planning about how they make their communities magnets for talent," Thames said. "It's a look at the economic assets that each community has as well as the gaps the local economy has and how to fill them." The Higher Education Initiative is designed "to strengthen the focus on entre- preneurship" at Connecticut colleges and universities, she said. Presidents of more than 30 colleges and universities around the state met in December to get the initiative started. Joanne Berger- Sweeney, president of Trinity College in Hartford, and Mark Ojakian, president of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system, are leading a working group that will develop recommendations on how the state's institutions of higher education can improve on developing students' entrepreneurial skills. ose recommendations will be released this spring. Both CT Innovations and CTNext have their own "Shark Tank" style competition, modeled aer the ABC network televi- sion show in which entrepreneurs pitch their ideas/products to venture capital- ists, who then decide whether or not they want to invest. e CTNext competition, known as the Entrepreneur Innovation Awards, provides startups with the opportunity to vie for grants of up to $10,000, if their pitch is selected by a judging panel. e competi- tion is held three to four times a year at various locations around the state. Applicants are eligible to win $30,000 in grants over the lifetime of a company, which means they can submit for and be awarded $10,000 up to three times. So far, the Entrepreneur Innovations Awards have awarded $510,000 to 49 companies. Connecticut Innovations' similar com- petition, VentureClash, is a higher stakes contest in terms of the amount of money that goes to the winners. The most recent VentureClash was held in December 2016 at the Yale University School of Manage- ment in New Haven. Heading south e winning company in that competi- tion was Toronto-based Dream Payments, which has a cloud-based mobile payment platform for merchants and financial institu- tions. e $1.5 million that Dream Payments received will enable the company to open a U.S. headquarters in Stamford, said Alex Walker, the company's chief financial officer. "Stamford will become the hub of our business in the U.S.," Walker said. "We expect there will be a significant presence Pictured are the September 2015 Entrepreneur Innovation Award winners representing the following startups: Ray Lighting + Design Studios; Imperium Technologies; Send Help Back Home (SHBH); Ware; and Fresh Farm Aquaponics. > Continued from page 63 Small Business Continued on page 68 > Alex Walker, CFO of Dream Payments, which is planning to relocate its head- quarters to Connecticut. PHOTO/DREAM PAYMENTS PHOTO/CTINNOVATIONS