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Flow Science gifts back $50K award

Money goes to future Venture Acceleration Fund award winners.
August 2, 2016
Flow Science, based in Santa Fe, is the second company to pay back a VAF award.

Flow Science, based in Santa Fe, is the second company to pay back a VAF award; the first was Titan Aerospace, which paid back its loan in 2014 after being acquired.

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The VAF awards are a collaborative investment with a shared goal of adding jobs and revenue to northern New Mexico.

Last month, Flow Science, a Santa Fe-based software company, gifted back $50,000 to the Venture Acceleration Fund (VAF). The company was awarded the money in 2014 through a VAF award—a zero-interest loan with payback only required when a company meets certain revenue goals, is acquired, or moves out of state. 

Although Flow Science has not yet met any of the requirements to pay back the loan, President Thomas Jensen felt the time was right for Flow Science to pay its award forward to “benefit other regional businesses that might be in a position to expand their research and development efforts via the VAF.” The VAF awards are a collaborative economic development investment managed by the Regional Development Corporation (RDC) with a shared goal of adding new jobs and revenue to northern New Mexico.

“The funding my company received through the Venture Acceleration Fund program was instrumental in furthering our technology extension objectives and spurring further business growth,” Jensen says.

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The team at Flow Science. Based in Santa Fe, Flow Science was founded in 1980 by Tony Hirt, who was one of the pioneered the “Volume-of-Fluid” method working at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

In a letter to the RDC that accompanied the $50,000 payback check, Jensen noted his thanks to the Richard P. Feynman Center for Innovation at the Laboratory for technical assistance provided, and to Val Alonzo, business expansion and retention specialist at the RDC for his ongoing guidance and support to the company. 

“This is an example of the amazing things that happen when we focus on relationships and provide the very best services possible to assist companies,” said Liddie Martinez, executive director of the RDC. “We are grateful that Flow Science sees the value of the VAF program and is eager to pay it forward to help other Northern New Mexico businesses.”

Headquartered in Santa Fe, Flow Science has been growing steadily and now employs 65 people worldwide (32 based locally). The company’s computational fluid dynamics solutions allow commercial, academic, and government researchers to accurately model physical processes across a broad range of applications.

The VAF was established in 2006 by Los Alamos National Security, LLC (the company that manages Los Alamos National Laboratory), to stimulate the economy by supporting growth-oriented companies. Since then, the VAF program has assisted 61 New Mexico companies through marketing and technology development activities such as proof-of-concept, prototyping, developing market share, product launching, or leveraging funding. Other 2016 funders include the City of Santa Fe, Los Alamos County, New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership, Santa Fe County, and Century Bank.