Companies developing new products in Androscoggin County received more than 40 percent of the investment encouraged by about $2.5 million in grant awards from the Maine Technology Institute from July through September.
In those three months, state-funded agency gave out $2,527,572 to 33 companies, matched by $3,187,413 in investment from private sources.
The largest awards come in the form of loans to help businesses that are developing or preparing to sell products, like the Lewiston-based Physical Apps, which moved to the city earlier this year to develop high-tech toys that incorporate sensor technologies in smart phones.
Physical Apps received a $499,000 loan from MTI, matched by $753,805 in matching investment from private sources.
The other companies receiving development loans from MTI were the Old Town-based Blue Ox Malt House ($250,000), Orono-based Double Blue Sports Analytics ($175,000), Alexander-based Northern Tack LLC ($141,878), Auburn-based Rethink Packaging ($520,000), South Paris-based Mingle Analytics ($343,299) and Bowdoinham-based DAVO Technologies ($156,165).
The rest of the grant awards came in the form of smaller grants to help early-stage businesses get off the ground. That included $382,101 in grants of up to $25,000 per company and $24,929 in grants of up to $5,000.
Grant recipients in those categories were mostly in Southern Maine, but included a $25,000 award going to Jackson Laboratory spinoff Novo Biosciences and another of that amount to Blue Hill-based Intellergy Inc., which is developing technologies to visualize and monitor a building’s energy use.