The head of the R.I. Economic Development Corporation sees InQuest Technologies’ planned move of its headquarters from Massachusetts to Providence as a sign of success for his new push to bring companies to Rhode Island.
InQuest, a software developer that creates custom browser-based applications for businesses, last week said it will relocate its 20-person office next month from Southborough, Mass., to West Exchange Street in Providence, and plans to add more than two dozen new jobs there over the next year and a half. The EDC will give InQuest a $750,000 loan from the corporation’s Small Business Loan Fund to help pay for the expansion.
“We’re very excited,” said Saul Kaplan, the EDC’s executive director. “It’s good news for Rhode Island, it’s good news for Providence, it’s good news for our innovation economy and creating high-wage jobs in Rhode Island.”
The EDC spent six months courting InQuest in discussions with its senior management team. Officials highlighted Rhode Island’s growing tech industry and educated workforce, and detailed the corporation’s finance programs and expertise in securing federal contracts.
InQuest co-founder and CEO Michael Colapietro said the EDC’s role was crucial in convincing his company to move to Rhode Island, rather than Worcester or another part of Massachusetts as had been planned.
“I can honestly say this – and this is not just because we’ve made the arrangement to come down – we would not even have put Rhode Island on the map as a possibility if it wasn’t for their persistence in really showing the strength of the state,” Colapheietro said.
The small-business loan InQuest secured will allow the company to meet demand for IQ9, its new platform for Web-based business applications, and make the product more visible on the market. The company has sold its products to a number of large organizations, including the U.S. Navy, Verizon, National Grid, Con Edison, and ADT Security Services.
Colapietro, a Rhode Island native who grew up in Johnston, said that like many of his peers he got his degree here and then moved north to find a job in the burgeoning industry. It was not until starting discussions with EDC that Colapietro said he realized how the industry had grown in Rhode Island.
“It’s invisible to people up here [in Massachusetts] – it’s not apparent,” he said, but taking a closer look “opened our eyes.”
Another factor that impacted InQuest’s decision was the appeal of Providence. “It’s a jewel that is underappreciated,” Colapietro said, praising the city’s social scene and its easy access to the highway. “Boston is big and things are spread out. Providence is small, and while it’s a big city, it’s a homey kind of city.”
InQuest was lured to the Ocean State through Opportunity: Rhode Island, a regional campaign the EDC launched in February aimed at attracting to the state expanding companies in the financial services, information technology and digital media, and health and life sciences sectors.
“Our economic growth plan identifies very aggressive expansion and attraction efforts,” Kaplan said. “This is evidence that we’re making progress, and these are exactly the kinds of companies we want to have here in Rhode Island. I think these programs are very important to strengthening our economy.”
InQuest is the first success story since the EDC campaign was launched six months ago. The loan was made from a fund that has handed out or approved $10.6 million in deals, including $2.6 million in loans that have not yet closed. The loan fund is capped at $12.7 million.
Kaplan stressed that the EDC is trying to attract companies that will hire workers at every level of the wage ladder, not just those with advanced degrees and highly specialized skills.
“We want to focus on companies that provide entry-level jobs and more senior jobs with the ability to help move people up the job ladder, so that they can make the kinds of wages that they need in order to live here in the Northeast,” he said. “We think sectors like IT, life sciences, financial services, defense and marine – these are the sectors that have that potential.” •
