New Nonprofit Takes Over What’s Left Of SARTA
Filling a void in the local tech community, Sacramento co-working space I/O Labs announced this week that it will take over what’s left of the Sacramento Regional Technology Alliance.
SARTA was a regional nonprofit created roughly 15 years ago to spur growth in the local tech industry. The organization folded last fall, and staff members were laid off after the group ran out of funding. Since then, the nonprofit’s board of directors has searched for other nonprofits to take over SARTA’s various startup programs.
On Friday, the board voted unanimously to hand over SARTA’s remaining assets to a new foundation launched by I/O Labs. The organization will be known as I/O Sacramento and will run a number of former SARTA programs connecting local tech startups and entrepreneurs with events, conferences and mentors, along with the federal grant program. Other former SARTA programs such as MedStart and AgStart have been absorbed by other nonprofit organizations across the region.
I/O Sacramento will be different from SARTA in a few ways, said foundation CEO Brandon Weber.
Whereas SARTA worked with tech companies of all sizes, the new foundation will focus more on supporting startups. That’s closer to what Weber has been doing at Urban Hive, his current co-working space in midtown.
“SARTA did a lot of work creating long-term, strong partnerships,” and the new foundation will allow those partnerships to continue, Weber said.
I/O Sacramento will also take over as the regional partner for the state’s iHub program, which works on partnerships, economic development and job creation around specific research clusters in the state. That program is administered through the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, or GO-Biz.
Tech industry leaders had been searching for a way to replace SARTA’s role in providing service for local startups and entrepreneurs. Oleg Kaganovich, CEO of Wyndow Inc. and a former SARTA board member, said the move makes sense. He said I/O Labs, a co-working and networking space opening later this year, has tools in place to continue SARTA’s work.
“Having SARTA folded in is a great outcome and will give I/O the ability to leverage institutional knowledge and relationships built over a decade and a half at SARTA,” Kaganovich wrote in an email.
The new foundation will be based in the downtown co-working and accelerator office I/O Labs is opening at 7th and J streets this July. That space is starting out at 36,000 square feet, and the group has options to take up to 72,000 square feet of that building.
“Sacramento is experiencing undeniable momentum, especially downtown. I/O Sacramento, situated at the core of our city and just across the street from the world’s most technologically advanced arena highlights our fast-growing innovation ecosystem,” said Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, in a news release. “The City is eager to partner with I/O Sacramento to solidify Sacramento’s reputation as a hub of innovation, entrepreneurship and technology.”
Source: Sacramento Business Journal, Mark Anderson
Photo: The new I/O Sacramento foundation will be based in the downtown co-working and accelerator office I/O Labs is opening at 7th and J streets this July. (Mark Anderson)
Mark Anderson covers technology, agriculture, banking and finance, venture capital, energy, mining and hospitality for the Sacramento Business Journal.