ALISO VIEJO, Calif., May 14, 2019 – OCTANe, Orange County’s technology and life sciences accelerator organization, today announced that it will spearhead seven new initiatives to further momentum and job growth in the Southern California region. Each of these initiatives are key parts of OCTANe’s overall strategic plan and feature many leading organizations as collaboration partners. The announcements were made during OCTANe’s signature event, Technology Innovation Forum (TIF).

“Recently, there has been a lot of interest in growing jobs and the technology industry in Southern California, specifically Orange County,” said Bill Carpou, CEO of OCTANe. “We are thrilled to be a part of making this tremendous growth a reality through our latest initiatives and partnerships with premier leaders in our field.”

Investment Banking Partnership: OCTANe’s relationship with Tellson Securities has resulted in three company engagements to raise capital. Today, the footprint of Tellson is expanding to include offices in New York City and Washington D.C. that have additional industry engagement in FinTech and Cybersecurity.

Private Investor Network: OCTANe intends to grow this network and fill $1 million – $5 million investment rounds under the guidance of recently appointed Director of Capital Markets, Debra Hart. The network will continue to expand as highly qualified investors continue to show an interest in the Orange County region and its surrounding technology industry.  This network will continue to fill a large void for early stage companies.

Shared Services Platform: Powered by RSM, this outsourced platform for financial and accounting operations, managed IT solutions, cybersecurity and taxes services, will provide high-quality resources so that companies can focus on growing their business and accelerate revenue.  This platform will provide OCTANe partners access to RSM’s platform nationally. It is aimed at both early stage and mature companies that have used the LaunchPad accelerator and the large SMB market.

InSoCal Expansion: InSoCal was founded by OCTANe, LAVA and SDVG in 2018. The combined entities recently announced results for 2018, which surpassed expectations.  With the recent merger of SDVG and CONNECT, the InSoCal network has expanded its reach to cover universities, investors and early stage companies across Southern California. The InSoCal network will continue to add capabilities to drive results in 2019 as it looks to create week-long innovation conferences in 2020 that bring together all aspects of the ecosystem.

Vertical Market Focus: Having learned valuable lessons working with the ophthalmology industry, OCTANe plans to take a more vertical approach in new initiatives combining thought leadership and capital. New focus areas will include FinTech, Advanced Analytics, Cyber, Medical Aesthetics and Dental. OCTANe is working closely with Experian, the global data and analytics firm, and Allergan in the FinTech/Data Analytics and Medical Aesthetics areas, respectively.

Great Park/FivePoint Partnership: OCTANe has partnered with the Great Park and FivePoint to create a hub of innovation, which will include the recently announced City of Hope Cancer Center. The location will become the epicenter of innovation for Southern California.

Women’s’ Leadership: OCTANe has introduced an initiative to focus on accelerating women entrepreneurs and the success of their companies. Success metrics will be to increase women operated companies through the LaunchPad accelerator, to get more women operated companies funded, and to provide greater access to resources and power networking opportunities to connect female leaders with both public and private board opportunities

About OCTANe:

OCTANe is building the SoCal of Tomorrow by connecting people, resources and capital to fuel technology growth in Southern California. Its members represent technology executive leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists, academicians, and strategic advisors, all working together to fuel innovation in the OC. The organization has helped more than 800 companies via the LaunchPad SBDC accelerator. LaunchPad companies have received more than $2.1 billion in investment and equity exits. OCTANe annually welcomes more than 7,000 people to its programs and events. More than 2,000 business leaders throughout the region are OCTANe members. For more information, visit www.octaneoc.org.