The Water Council will receive $225,000 from a $30 million grant program facilitated by JPMorgan Chase & Co. through its Small Business Forward initiative.
The grant total was announced Monday at a press conference held at the Global Water Center in Milwaukee, with remarks from Gov. Scott Walker and Mayor Tom Barrett as well as James Popp, president of Chase in Wisconsin, and Rich Meeusen, co-founder and co-chair of The Water Council and chairman, president and CEO of Milwaukee-based Badger Meter.
JPMorgan Chase’s new Small Business Forward initiative is a national, five-year grant program supporting small business networks in 10 cities across the country.
“The Small Business Forward Initiative is focused on clusters…that leverage the best things in different communities and the best opportunities to make a difference and make an impact while also facilitating small business and entrepreneurship in communities,” Popp said. “The Water Council was one of those clusters.”
The Water Council plans to use the one-year $225,000 grant to help identify investment firms interested specifically in water technology and then bring them to Milwaukee to educate them about Milwaukee’s water hub as well as connect them with companies in need of funds.
“So it’s identify, educate and connect,” Meeusen said. “Those are the three important pieces.”
The Water Council has found that it needs to connect investors with “the companies that need money,” Meeusen said.
“And there is a problem in Wisconsin with making that connection,” he said. “We’re having trouble doing that.”
With the grant from JPMorgan Chase, the Water Council plans to hire a full-time staff member to travel and meet with potential investors to explain the benefits of coming to see Milwaukee’s water technology, according to Meeusen. The Water Council will also host seminars and conferences to bring investors and entrepreneurs to the same table.
During Walker’s remarks at Monday’s announcement, he called attention to The Water Council’s impact across Wisconsin.
“We’re pleased with The Water Council to have statewide…nearly 300 businesses related to water and water technology and clean water technology and beyond and generate about 37,000 jobs across the state and generate about $5.7 million in terms of annual sales,” Walker said. “And so you can see this cluster has a dynamic impact.”
JPMorgan Chase announced its $30 million Small Business Forward initiative in July, but Milwaukee’s grant total was the first of any beneficiary to be announced.
“We think that’s symbolic of the focus on this cluster here,” Walker said.
The firm plans to expand its Small Business Forward initiative to a global scale in 2015.
