2016 was the biggest year on record for the University City Keystone Innovation Zone (KIZ): the tax credit program that was almost axed yielded $2.4 million in tax credits for 36 Philly companies.
The numbers signal a boost from the program’s popularity in 2015, when 21 companies from the area, including PeopleLinx, ApprenNet and Curalate, were awarded $1.8 million in sellable tax credits. That may be in part because the KIZ expanded to include N3rd Street last year.
It now looks like this:
Since 2006 a total of $10.3 million in KIZ tax credits have been awarded to 63 companies in University City, Center City and N3rd Street.
“Zivtech’s most recent KIZ Tax Credit will allow us to take more risks around innovative new products and service offerings” said in a press release Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg, cofounder and CEO of Zivtech, which was awarded $82,585 in credits as part of the program. “We’ll be putting these funds towards the ongoing development of our Continuous Integration product Probo.ci.” (One more reason for Urevick-Acklesberg to be bullish on Philly as a startup town.)
Companies that got tax credits from the University City KIZ include:
- Promptworks
- Sidecar
- Velano Vascular
- Setvi
- Vistar Media
- Biomeme
- Lamps.com
- PerPay
- SnipSnap
- VeryApt
- Cloudmine
According to numbers from the Department of Community and Economic Development, three companies also took advantage of Philadelphia’s other, smaller innovation zone, The Navy Yard. Luxtech, Rhoads Marine Industryand Industrial Metals Manufacturing were each awarded $82,585 in tax credits. Companies like Clutch, 1SEO and GLOBO also received credits in the KIZ that includes Bucks and Montgomery Counties.
