Where are they now: SEDCO gives update on previous RISE winners

4/28/2023 (Michael Hutchins, Herald Democrat)

The Sherman Economic Development Corp is giving an update on the development of young businesses that it helped support in 2022. Officials with the economic developer recently spoke on businesses that were awarded funding as a part of the RISE Challenge one year later.

In 2022, SEDCO offered three grants to area companies as a part of the first cycle of its RISE program, also known as Raising Innovative Sherman Entrepreneurs. The program was a new initiative aimed at providing assistance and support to fledgling businesses that needed early capital in order to thrive.

“They were a young early company that had a great product,” SEDCO President Kent Sharp said regarding Arctic Bracing, who received $100,000 in 2022. “They had initiated some sales that were coming in, but they needed capital.”

Arctic Bracing received the largest of the awards in the 2022 cycle for RISE. The company produces a line of medical bracing equipment that molds to the patient and provides a finer level of customization than other options.

Sharp said Arctic Bracing was attracted to the RISE program after bringing in a few investors. However, the company did not want to give up more equity in order to get early capital.

“As a result, they’ve substantially increased their sales and have added a couple of employees and just continue to grow,” Sharp said.

Sharp said Arctic Bracing saw success in 2022 and has since continued to work with SEDCO. In August, the SEDCO Board of Directors approved the sale of land out of the Progress Park 3 business park to Arctic Bracing for new production facilities.

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