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Local startup receives federal funds for agricultural technology
By Ferraiuoli LLC
The program offers competitively awarded grants to qualified small businesses to support high quality research related to important scientific problems and opportunities in agriculture that could lead to significant public benefits, stimulating technological innovations in the private sector and strengthens the role of federal research and development in support of small businesses. The SBIR program also fosters and encourages participation by women-owned and socially or economically disadvantaged small businesses.
In 2017 Puerto Rican aerospace startup PRatian was the winner of EnterPrize’s Innovation Award, sponsored by Ferraiuoli LLC. EnterPrize is a business building competition and accelerator providing startups with access to workshops, mentoring, and access to equity-free seed capital. The Innovation Award was given for the development of PRatian product AgroBeads, biodegradable spheres made from natural ingredients that help reduce the amount of water used in irrigation and provide plants with the nutrients they need.
Within the objectives of the SBIR Program, AgroBeads will strengthen its role in meeting Federal research and development needs and increase commercialization derived from USDA-supported research and development efforts.
Ferraiuoli LLC
Ferraiuoli LLC (FLLC) was founded in 2003 by the late Blas Ferraiuoli-Martínez, Eugenio Torres-Oyola and María Marchand-Sánchez. This group was then joined in 2004 by Fernando J. Rovira-Rullán, thus forming the founding core of FLLC. FLLC has grown exponentially since its founding from a law firm with three attorneys and a support staff of three to its current size of 54 attorneys with a support staff of 38. Also, FLLC has grown from initially being known as an intellectual property and corporate law boutique law firm to a multiservice law firm that handles most matters relevant to a business while continuing to earn praise for its leading intellectual property and corporate practices.
FLLC has been ranked as a leading law firm in Puerto Rico by the professional publication Chambers Latin America in intellectual property, corporate, bankruptcy, labor & employment, real estate, and tax law. Moreover, 17 FLLC partners have been ranked as leaders in their field by the same publication. 4 FLLC partners are ranked as leaders in Intellectual Property, no other firm has more than 2. This recognition in such a short period of time is a tribute to FLLC’s business model.
FLLC prides itself in doing its work faster and more cost-efficiently yet with the same quality as that of its main competitors. The founding name partners are available at all times to attend to client matters. Their work ethic sets the tone for the rest of the firm. FLLC’s founders’ goal has been steady from the outset: become one of the premier multiservice law firms in Puerto Rico.
