Staff photo / R. Michael Semple Barb Ewing, CEO of the Youngstown Business Incubator, center, ties the ceremonial ribbon together as Jing Lyon, interim CEO of BRITE Energy Innovators, left, and Samuel Huston, board member of both YBI and BRITE and Huntington Bank’s Mahoning Valley Market President, take part in the ribbon-tying ceremony Tuesday afternoon at BRITE in downtown Warren.

WARREN — BRITE Energy Innovators is a nonprofit clean energy technology incubator in downtown Warren. The Youngstown Business Incubator connects projects from business owners and startup companies with software, web, and app developers, graphic and interactive designers, and engineers.

On Tuesday afternoon at the BRITE facility, the two organizations had a ribbon-tying ceremony, followed by a reception and tours of the BRITE facility. Barb Ewing, CEO of YBI, said that YBI will be working with BRITE to manage the BRITE facility and host programming.

BRITE Interim CEO Jing Lyon and Ewing tied the green and orange ribbons as Warren Mayor Doug Franklin and other community members and employees of each organization held them. YBI has five buildings in downtown Youngstown. Its sixth building will be an innovation hub for defense and aerospace.

YBI’s Advanced Manufacturing program works directly with small and medium-sized manufacturers, helping them with the use of innovative technologies, allowing them to be more competitive in the marketplace by making improvements to their products’ functionality and / or quality. The Evolve program helps technology-based start-ups, offering them commercialization assistance.

The Supply Hub offers a searchable database of minority-owned businesses, allowing for growth opportunities. The Lake to River Small Business Success Program works with entrepreneurs to support small business development. The Minority Business Assistance Center provides technical assistance, helps to obtain working capital and grant funding, and helps with finding federal contracting opportunities.

Tanisha Wheeler, Regional Director of the Minority Business Assistance Center (MBAC), said, “We have a wonderful partnership with the city of Warren. The mayor has been very supportive of YBI and MBAC. We already have clients who are housed inside this building and are super excited to be back. Our team is on site every Thursday so if anyone is in the area and has business questions or just wants to come in and talk about an idea, we will be here.”

Chandler Fiffick, Senior Director of the YBI Evolve Technology Program, said, “We are funded by the State of Ohio to help tech-based companies start, launch, scale up, create jobs and provide tax revenue for the state.”

Fiffick said their services are free, and they are not allowed to take any equity. Eventually, they will offer virtual office hours.

The primary cohort of companies under the new partnership will be advanced manufacturing startups, which must be located in the northern half of the state.They also will continue with a smaller cohort of software companies based in the Mahoning Valley.

The third cohort of companies is their international YBI program.

Fiffick said, “This is an effort to bring established overseas businesses, helping them start their U.S. entities in Ohio, specifically Youngstown. We currently have three or four companies on campus that are doing quite well. Hopefully they will be creating jobs for the area.”

Stephanie Gaffney, Vice President of Advanced Manufacturing Services at YBI, said, “In 11 years, they have done $126 million in state, local and federal contracts, the majority being local manufacturing support. Our main focus is 3-D printing. We also implement digital engineering and robotics.”

Gaffney said, “We come out to your facility. We do walk-throughs. We help you find dollars to cover the costs of these projects. We have some digital engineering programs.”

Heidi Ruby, Vice President of Operations at YBI, said additional office space and bathrooms will be added to the facility in Warren.

“We should be able to accommodate all of the needs of Trumbull County and the city of Warren,” she said.