Octane, Orange County’s largest business accelerator, is launching a new capital campaign as part of its ongoing effort to create high-paying local jobs.
The Aliso Viejo-based group, now in its 20th year of operations, said it is seeking private investors for the new Octane Impact Fund. It aims to raise $5 million by the end of 2023.
The funding will support several initiatives, including Octane’s LaunchPad Accelerator, NextWave Leaders, Women Leaders of Octane, STEAM Fellows, and its newest addition, Healthsocal.ai.
“The sooner we can raise the funds, the sooner we can turn the dollars into impact,” Octane’s past Chairman and Neurotech Executive Chair Jim Mazzo told the Business Journal.
High-Paying Jobs
Octane was co-founded in 2002 by a group of local execs, including Mazzo, former Conexant Systems Inc. CEO Dwight Decker, Edwards Lifesciences CEO Mike Mussallem, Western Digital Chairman Matthew Massengill and the University of California, Irvine’s former Vice Chancellor of Advancement, Tom Moebus, as the first comprehensive effort in Orange County to integrate universities, entrepreneurs, large companies, and venture capitalists.
“I look at my life and career, and this achievement of developing Octane, and watching it grow over 20 years, is a crowning achievement,” Decker said at Octane’s virtual Partnership Summit event on Feb. 24.
Since the inception of LaunchPad in 2010, the group says its efforts have created 26,316 jobs in Orange County.
The group’s most recent stated goal was to create 55,000 new high-paying jobs for the area in the near future. With its latest batch of initiatives being ramped up, Octane has boosted that goal to 88,000 by 2030.
“Creating jobs without talent is a losing proposition,” Octane Chief Executive Bill Carpou said at the Partner Summit event. “Creating talent with no jobs moves it elsewhere.”
Healthy Economy
Local research suggests that OC in recent years has lost pace to other regions in terms of creating advanced industry jobs, which pay nearly twice as much as other jobs (see Leader Board, page 89).
“You can’t have this healthy environment unless you have a healthy economy with companies that are growing, innovating and creating better jobs,” said Mussallem, whose Irvine-based device maker (NYSE: EW) is OC’s most valuable public company.
“For any of us involved with Octane, the question is, ‘Are you doing it for yourself and your own company, or are you doing it for community?’ The answer to that is some of both,” Mussallem said at the virtual meeting.
LaunchPad Success
The LaunchPad program accelerates the development of late seed and Series A-ready companies; internal studies suggest its startups raise funds 25% faster than their peers.
Last year alone, its companies raised $400 million in capital.
Alumni of LaunchPad include micro-investing fintech Acorns and project management software firm Mavenlink.
The College-Career Continuum
About 52 of the county’s largest organizations have joined forces with Octane, from UCI to Medtronic PLC (NYSE: MDT) and Edwards Lifesciences.
UCI’s center for innovation and entrepreneurship, the Beall Applied Innovation (BAI), is playing an increasingly larger part in the groups’ efforts, officials say.
Beall Chief Innovation Officer Errol Arkilic said the investment ecosystem should run like a continuum of collaborating entities.
For example, BAI takes intellectual property developed at the university that can be perhaps commercialized. Octane then teaches that company’s executives how to attract investors.
“It’s important that our relationship is strong and understood. [Octane and BAI are] both aligned with the same goal—we’re just dealing with companies in different stages,” Arkilic said.
“We need Octane and an impact fund to be there when projects are generating enough momentum for the private sector to take that risk and move it forward.”
Improving Health With AI
Octane has begun a program dubbed Healthsocal.ai to position the region as a “healthcare AI superhub” by 2027.
The program, announced last year, aims to leverage the region’s success in building ophthalmology and medical aesthetics businesses, among other healthcare-related industries.
It plans to “leverage AI across the healthcare industry, enhance wellness, mental health, traditional medical device including biotech, and pharma with existing AI tech,” according to the group.
The effort also aims to develop an AI solution that will reverse declining life expectancy trends and improve public longevity. It already counts Children’s Hospital of Orange County, City of Hope, UCI and UCLA Health as collaborators.
Initial funding for the launch of Healthsocal.ai was provided by the Samueli Foundation, according to Octane.
Last month, Octane appointed former Google Global Alliance Leader Zeeshan Subzwari as managing director of the initiative.
“It’s about innovating,” Subzwari told the Business Journal. “My mission, life and job are now all one—we’re trying to create a healthier future for our community.”
