The County supports key aspects of innovation and start-up business development designed to cultivate entrepreneurs and innovation. Through investment in targeted programs the County supports early stage companies along the capital formation continuum and product life-cycle. Examples of these targeted programs and details on the support provided include:

• Economic Community Development Institute (ECDI): ECDI supports micro-enterprise lending by providing comprehensive technical and financial assistance to locally owned small businesses.
• Small Business Enterprise Municipalities: Provides ½ to ¾ of the total amount each municipality can provide to locally owned small businesses, to increase their owner equity so they can qualify for bank loans to support their growth.
• Capital Access Fund: Businesses supported by the Capital Access Fund are local small businesses, owned by minority group members, in need of both advice and financing to grow and expand their operations. This program helps businesses to grow by qualifying for bank loans.
• Grow Cuyahoga Fund: Makes loans to well established small businesses that need additional capital to expand. This in turn creates new job opportunities, many in well paid jobs such as manufacturing.
• Aerozone: With Cuyahoga County’s funding, the Ohio Aerospace Institute began to operate a coordinated program to link NASA with local entrepreneurs through 2018 and into 2019.
• Commission on Economic Inclusion: The funding from Cuyahoga County supports technical assistance to minority-owned businesses to unlock their growth potential.

While the number of small businesses assisted returned to above 40 for the 2nd quarter of 2019, the dollar amount of County funding declined from historical levels. In part this reflects the full utilization of County funding to third party agencies, with renewed funding in the works.