Caption: From left, Brock Hoyle, Dr. Mike Wanous, Blake Day, Michael Bockorny, Dr. Neal Schnoor, Bea Smith, Dr. Hannah Walters, Dr. Erin Fouberg, Heath Johnson, Veronica Paulson, and Dr. Alyssa Kiesow. 

ABERDEEN, S.D. –  The Northern Innovation and Startup Center has received a $100,000 grant from Knight Foundation’s Aberdeen Fund in the South Dakota Community Foundation. The Knight Foundation’s Aberdeen Fund is facilitated by the Aberdeen Area Community Foundation. This grant mirrors the one the Fund gave last year, to help launch the Innovation and Startup Center.

“We are so thankful to the Knight Foundation for their continued support,” said Bea Smith, director of Northern Innovation and Startup Center.

The Northern Innovation and Startup Center, in strategic partnership with the Aberdeen Development Corporation, officially opened fall 2022. The Northern Innovation and Startup Center aims to advance the ideas of entrepreneurs, launch startups, and create new digital jobs in Aberdeen and the northeast region of South Dakota.  

Currently, the Innovation and Startup Center is housed in the Beulah Williams Library and will eventually be located in the new Business and Health Innovation Center, which is expected to be completed by fall 2025.

The funding the Knight Aberdeen Fund provides has and will continue to be used to:

• Offer broad access to speakers and programing through Hy Flex delivery, which allows individuals throughout the region to attend events face to face, online synchronous, and online asynchronous.
• Host quarterly Community Champions network events downtown, which allows tech entrepreneurs to share ideas, challenges and successes, as well as build relationships and connections. 
• Share the success stories of entrepreneurs in order to highlight the fact anyone can become a tech entrepreneur. 
• Launch speaker series that brings in diverse speakers from various industries, and at different stages of their business development, such as the “She Means Business: Empowering Female Entrepreneurship” panel at the Technology and Entrepreneurship Summit, which featured three women who have embraced technology in their businesses and industries. 
   

By building a tech entrepreneurial ecosystem that fosters the creation of tech startups, Aberdeen has an opportunity to retain young residents, support their full employment, expand entrepreneurial vibrancy, and grow the economy in the region.

The Northern Innovation and Startup Center programming is open to students, community members, and individuals from the region at large, and most programs are free to attend. To see how the Innovation and Startup Center can help you, visit northernstartupcenter.com.