HERMITAGE, Pa. – Investments totaling $60,000 from the Mercer County Innovation Fund will help two Mercer County companies grow and add jobs.
The Mercer County Innovation Fund is a partnership between Ben Franklin Technology Partners and Penn-Northwest Development Corp.
Rod Wilt, Penn-Northwest executive director, said that up until a few years ago, the organization lacked a mechanism to assist fledgling companies beyond helping them acquire real estate or equipment.
“We had no way to finance great ideas,” he said.
That’s when the partnership with Ben Franklin was born. Penn-Northwest worked with a group of lenders including Hermitage, the Shenango Valley Enterprise Zone, Greenville Area Economic Development Corp. and Sharon Industrial Development Authority to set up a revolving loan fund with Ben Franklin to invest in companies.
At a news conference Tuesday, O & P Clinical Innovations, a Mercer company that designs and fabricates orthotic and prosthetic devices, received a $50,000 check. S/T Performance, a New Wilmington company that manufactures custom kit sports cars, received a $10,000 check.
“It’s important to know that these funds specifically aren’t used for the hard assets,” Wilt said. “These are used to protect intellectual property. These funds are used to advance ideas, maybe buy additional software – what we call those soft assets that you need, that are just as important as the tool and just as important to the building and the machine and equipment.”
Sara Peterson started O & P Clinical Innovations as a consultant in 2019, and last year she expanded into fabrication of prosthetics. Peterson, who earned a Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Science from the University of Pittsburgh, moved to Grove City in 2018 after getting married.
“I saw that there was a need for orthotics and prosthetics manufacturing, and I saw that Mercer County is the perfect place for that,” Peterson said.
She listed the low cost of living, available resources from Penn-Northwest and Ben Franklin and the number of orthotic/prosthetic companies that need her services.
The investment from the fund will enable her to hire a part-time business development manager and a part-time laboratory technician, as well as help pay for marketing and website development. O & P employs Peterson and a part-time person, but she projects that number to increase to eight within three years.
That’s the objective of Ben Franklin Technology Partners: jobs.
“Our North Star is absolutely jobs,” said Brian Slawin, the organization’s northwest regional director and portfolio manager.
Ben Franklin Technology Partners is an economic development engine focused on entrepreneurism, he said.
Michael and Jeanice Britvich are S/T Performance’s only employees but expect to increase that to eight in the next few years. The investment from the innovation fund will provide a foundation to help start the company.
“I’ve been restoring and into cars for the past 40-plus years, and I’ve always wanted to create my own car,” Michael Britvich said. “And about four or five years ago, the timing was right to go, ‘Hey, I think I want to bring this to market.’ And here we are.”
S/T allows people to buy a kit and build their own car, or the company will build it for them.
Jeanice Britvich described the designs as exclusive.
“The design that he came up with is kind of old retro style meets all the advanced technology,” she said.
Michael said customers range from the average car collector to someone with a multimillion dollar car collection.
Wilt said the two companies that received checks Tuesday are the third and fourth in which the fund has invested since it started.
Advanced Power & Energy, an energy startup in Greenville, was the first, and Kevo Brew, a cold brew coffee maker in Transfer, was the second.
Slawin welcomed the two new companies into the innovation fund portfolio.
“We could not be more excited to meet these really great entrepreneurs in Mercer County, and there’s more coming,” he said.
Pictured at top: Sara Peterson, founder of O & P Clinical Innovations, received a $50,000 check from the Mercer County Innovation Fund as an investment in her company.