There’s a new tech partnership in town.
It’s the Austin Technology Partnership, an alliance between the City of Austin and the Austin Technology Council.
The new partnership seeks to study and strengthen the city’s technology industry with a major focus on the emerging life sciences industry.
The partnership has an annual budget of $775,000 with the city contributing $294,500 and the rest of the money coming from the private sector. It will also create 3.5 full time positions, said Grover Bynum with ATC, which currently has four full time employees and a staff of interns from the digital MBA program at St. Edwards University and the University of Texas at Austin. The new jobs will support data collection on tech talent, available capital for investments in the tech industry, the number of companies and jobs in the life sciences industry and ways to further develop the market, he said.
Austin’s tech industry has an annual regional economic impact of $21.5 billion and supports 26 percent of the area’s jobs.
“Austin’s at a tipping point,” Austin City Council Member and ATP sponsor Mike Martinez said in a news release. “It’s time to leverage today’s strengths to ensure that the next generation of Austinites have the same, or greater, opportunities as many of us do today. The Austin Technology Partnership will lay the groundwork for training local talent for stable, high-paying jobs while supporting the City’s efforts to implement effective economic policies, streamline public investment, and save tax payer dollars.”
The Austin Technology Partnership will connect tech job creators to educators and workers, increase access to later stage capital, support the life sciences industry, and research ways to support market growth.
“Industry and City leaders spent the better part of two years developing a strategic set of shared priorities,” ATC President and CEO Julie Huls said in a statement.
“Austin is the only tech market in the U.S. to galvanize industry support to partner with a municipality to grow a stronger regional economy. We’re certain this new path will lead us to more efficient and more effective investment of regional resources to support our innovation-based economy. This partnership will allow ATC to serve our members and our market at a level unparalleled in the U.S.”
The Austin Technology Council represents more than 1,200 technology executives and 250 companies.
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