University of Washington’s CoMotion innovation hub opens Spokane location

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

(as reported in GeekWire by Taylor Soper)

CoMotion is growing its presence across the state of Washington.

The University of Washington’s “collaborative innovation hub” is expanding to eastern Washington with a new CoMotion Labs space in Spokane.

CoMotion helps startups through education and access to experts and funding sources. Originally started as the Center for Commercialization (C4C) at the UW’s main Seattle campus, the program evolved a few years ago from a department that mainly helped commercialize ideas born at the university — it has helped spin out 126 startups over the past decade, and 21 in fiscal 2016 — to what it now describes as a “collaborative innovation hub dedicated to expanding the societal impact of the UW community.”

CoMotion Labs” consists of UW’s new CoMotion headquarters in the University District, which houses the region’s only incubator focused on virtual and augmented reality startups; the CoMotion Incubator at Fluke Hall, which helps startups working on healthcare and biotech; and Startup Hall, where there is co-working space geared to software and IT startups, while also home to the Founder’s Co-op venture capital firm and Techstars Seattle.

The Spokane location, which will focus on manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, and robotics, is now the fourth CoMotion Labs building. It will host events, programming, mentoring, and advising while collaborating with other innovation spaces in and around Spokane.

“The Spokane region is a growing innovation ecosystem with which we are excited to partner,” Elizabeth Scallon, associate director of CoMotion Labs, said in a statement. “We believe the economic development of Washington is best served when we unify and engage all parts of our state through cross-collaboration of ideas, startups and resources. CoMotion Labs has the experience and excellence to partner and execute on this important initiative.”

Brady Ryan, formerly a commercialization manager and business development manager at Life Science Washington, will be the CoMotion Labs @ Spokane manager.

Taylor Soper is a GeekWire staff reporter who covers a wide variety of tech assignments, including emerging startups in Seattle and Portland, the sharing economy and the intersection of technology and sports. Follow him @taylor_soper and email taylor@geekwire.com.