The Missouri Innovation Center (MIC), a public, Missouri, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization, was created in 1984 to assist with technology commercialization in mid-Missouri Over the years, MIC has played a key role in the development of the infrastructure for innovation and technology-based economic development locally and state-wide. MIC’s central focus today is the creation of a cluster of high-technology companies in mid-Missouri. This is achieved by coaching area entrepreneurs, creating and incubating new technology companies, and attracting young technology ventures to the region.
Working closely with the University of Missouri, along with businesses and communities of the region, Missouri Innovation Center coordinated planning and fundraising for construction of a biomedical and technology business incubator in Columbia. Those efforts culminated in the opening of the 30,000sf MU Life Science Business Incubator in 2009.
Since opening the facility, MIC has set about the task of making the facility a vibrant home for startup ventures and a hub for entrepreneurship and economic development activities in the region. More than twenty ventures reside at the incubator, and we operate at close to the capacity of the currently built-out space. Many of those companies have been formed around technology innovated at the University of Missouri. In addition, new ventures have been attracted to the incubator and Columbia from North Carolina, England, Sweden, India, Israel, Jordan, and Australia.