JobsOhio and Regional Growth Partners are collaborating to offer grants of up to $50,000 for eligible businesses for expansion to ultimately create more jobs.
The two main eligibility determinates are location and ownership and must meet one of the two criteria:
(1) Be located in a distressed community – defined as having a Distressed Community Index of at least a 50. Local eligible zip codes include 45891 and 45879. To view other zip codes, go to: DCI Interactive Map.
(2) Have 51% ownership by an underrepresented population such as racial minority, women, veteran, or person with disability.
Further eligibility requirements include being in operation for over a year, having revenues between $100,000 and $25 million, having expansion go towards business to business transactions, and be in one of the 10 eligible industries including advanced or additive manufacturing, automotive, autonomous mobility, energy and chemical, financial services, insurtech, food and agribusiness, healthcare and biomedical, gene therapy, logistics and distribution, military and federal, technology, and cybersecurity.
Businesses who are awarded grant funds will be followed up with for a three year period where metrics will be measured and evaluated each year.
For more information on how to apply and view eligible costs for use of grant funds, visit the JobsOhio website here or the Regional Growth Partners here.