Harrisburg-based Ben Franklin Technology Partners and its network of entrepreneur clients helped lift Pennsylvania’s economy during the pandemic, keeping people employed and helping the state with its response and recovery efforts, the initiative’s 2020 Annual Statewide Impact report found.
The statewide economic development initiative invested in nearly 1,700 companies who, in turn, created more than 1,300 jobs, retained nearly 12,500 jobs, and generated $1.8 billion in revenue to help recovery efforts, the report said. Ben Franklin clients continued to drive the state’s economy with their innovation and entrepreneurial efforts, developing 167 software copyrights and patents and launching 443 new products and processes.
“With the world in the grips of a global pandemic and our state and nation suffering both medically and economically, Ben Franklin Technology Partners and its clients rose to the occasion,” said Ryan E. Glenn, Ben Franklin’s Director of Statewide Initiatives. “Innovation has proven to be key in our response to this pandemic, and it will remain central to our continuing recovery.”
Ben Franklin clients worked to address the pandemic in various ways, from treatments to testing to logistics and other support mechanisms. The state assigned the initiative with the task of launching the “Pennsylvania Manufacturing Call to Action Portal” to rapidly mobilize innovative manufacturers to produce critical medical products to combat the coronavirus and COVID-19. The state provided $1 million to each of the four statewide Ben Franklin Technology Partners to invest in clients experiencing hardship due to the impact of COVID-19.
Since its inception in the 1980s, the initiative has invested in more than 4,500 technology-based companies, boosting the state economy by more than $25 billion and helping to generate 148,000 jobs.