- JPIF’s portfolio company Manta Instruments, Inc has won this year’s MetroConnect program. This year, 73 companies applied to the program and 15 of them were awarded a grant to assist with international growth.
The MetroConnect Program, an initiative of the World Trade Center San Diego, California, was established in 2015 to promote innovative enterprises from San Diego on the global market.
The program participants will receive a $10,000 grant donated by JPMorgan Chase. Additionally, they will have access to guidance provided by WTC San Diego specialists on trade, financing and marketing that will help them to build an efficient international expansion strategy.
Furthermore, the award winners will participate in the MetroConnect Grand Prize Pitchfest in November 2016, where one or two selected projects will receive an additional $35,000 grant.
The MetroConnect Program is run jointly by JP Morgan Chase and Japan Airlines, Qualcomm Ventures, SYSTRAN and Taylor Guitars.
Manta (Manta Instruments inc.) is a company from the JPI Fund portfolio. The company has developed an instrument called ViewSizer 3000 – this is based on a breakthrough technology for detecting and measuring nanoparticle sizes in a considerably more efficient manner than other technologies available on the market. The technology was invented and developed by Prof. Dr Darius Stramski and Dr Kuba Tatarkiewicz, two Polish scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California, San Diego.
In 2015, Manta sold its first instruments on the US market and this year it plans to further expand ist commercial reach and activities.
