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July 19, 2022

Milford lighting firm hosts Lamont as he announces $119M in small business funding

PHOTO | LIESE KLEIN Founder John Tremaine (left), Senior Design Engineer Justin Collado and Gov. Ned Lamont at Q-Tran in Milford on July 18, 2022.
By Liese Klein

Milford lighting manufacturer innovating its way into 21% growth annually for the past four years was the site of a visit by Governor Ned Lamont on Monday as he announced a major federal investment in the state’s small businesses.

Lamont stopped by Q-Tran at 155 Hill St. in Milford, a maker of architectural LED lighting systems that has introduced at least five new lighting innovations a year since 2019, according to the company. 

Thanks in part to state funding, Q-Tran was able to invest in equipment to become the first company in the nation to encapsulate LED lighting tape in 2016. The firm is now on track to reach $40 million in annual revenue and 100 employees, with 80 in Milford and the rest in Compton, Calif. 

Through Connecticut Innovations, the state will invest up to $119.5 million in new funding in businesses like Q-Tran, Lamont announced Monday.

 

VERS suspended LED light fixtures from Q-Tran, a Milford company that reports growth of 21% a year as of 2022. 

Connecticut got approval from the U.S. Treasury on Monday for the funding through the American Rescue Plan Act’s State Small Business Credit Initiative.The new funding targets both entrepreneurs from underserved and diverse backgrounds and clean energy. The state also hopes to match the funding with an equivalent amount of private equity money. 

Connecticut Innovations will put the $119 million into two new funds: The Connecticut Future Fund for small business run by entrepreneurs from underserved and diverse backgrounds, and the ClimateTech (CT) Fund, designed to help fund companies in the clean energy, environmentally safe manufacturing and climate resiliency sectors.

“This is going to turbocharge their growth,” Lamont said of the companies that will benefit from the Connecticut Future Fund. The green tech funding also comes at a pivot point for the state’s growing sector, he added. “With our big push for wind power..you see a lot of supply chain and opportunities there. So the money was very timely.”

Allocating the federal dollars to Connecticut Innovations, the state’s quasi-public venture capital arm,  allows for greater leverage of the funding to spark growth in the state, said Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner David Lehman, also visiting Q-Tran on Monday with the governor.

“One of the things Connecticut's fortuitous in is that we have this infrastructure, this entity that does invest and has been very successful at it and creating jobs,” Lehman said. The funding also comes as state entrepreneurs continue to form new companies at record rates, with business formation up 50% when compared to pre-pandemic levels, he added.

“Those businesses need capital to grow in the state of Connecticut,” Lehman said. “And that's what this is going to do.”

Contact Liese Klein at lklein@newhavenbiz.com.

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