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The directors of the Youngstown Business Incubator in Youngstown, Ohio, have announced a partnership with The Junction, an investment firm based in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The partnership will see The Junction’s competition for $100,000 worth of startup money combined with access to the American market for small Israeli businesses. In turn, Israeli businesses will be able to set up in and around Youngstown, bringing growth to the region.

3D printing a mutual benefit

The scheme is supported by Barak Rabinowitz, a Youngstown-born venture capitalist who is a partner at F2 Capital, affiliated with The Junction, and The Thomases Family Endowment of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation.

Rabinowitz welcomed the partnership, stating that, “YBI will get critical deal flow to help grow their clusters of Additive Manufacturing and software companies, and provides our companies with a great place to launch their products into the US market”. He also welcomed the benefits the partnership would bring to his hometown.

Barb Ewing, CEO of the Youngstown Business Incubator also explained how the partnership would be mutually beneficial to both parties, since “the Israeli market is rather small, not really surrounded by friendly partners in the countries around them. They always need to look at either the North American or the European markets”.

Among the Israeli companies already looking to expand to the United States, are PrintCB, producer of a copper-based ink for additive manufacturing, and Nanofabrica, which 3D prints micro and nano parts.

3D printing regeneration

Youngstown, a former steel manufacturing hub has suffered economically in recent decades, but it has seen a resurgence in manufacturing due to 3D printing startups, OEMs and service bureaus setting up there.

These include companies like Freshmade 3D, and the additive manufacturing facilities at Youngstown State University.

Located in the Mahoning Valley in the US midwest, Youngstown is also the home of America Makes. The government-backed additive manufacturing education institute and consultancy is a pilot program for “Manufacturing USA”, the US national network of manufacturing innovation.

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Featured image shows the Youngstown Business Incubator banner displaying its partnerships. Photo via Youngstown Business incubator.