Raleigh-based Eva Garland Consulting (EGC) is on the prestigious Inc. 5000 list of the country’s fastest-growing private companies.

EGC landed at number 704 on the magazines recently released ranking. During the past three years, the consulting firm has grown 703 percent as entrepreneurs from around the world tap into the EGC’s expertise in identifying and managing grant funding. The firm now has 18 full-time employees.

According to CEO and founder Eva Garland, Ph.D., the company’s success is due to the growing need for funding of early-stage technologies.

“Unfortunately, the traditional pathway of relying exclusively on equity financing is ineffective for 98 percent of companies,” said Garland. “Simply put, venture capitalists are investing at later and later stages, and there is a void in funding for early-stage, potentially groundbreaking technologies. The entrepreneurial community is being forced to develop more effective strategies for filling this funding void.”

EGC logo

North Carolina’s growing life science and entrepreneurial community has directly benefited from ECG’s expertise.

“The EGC team has been instrumental in helping our companies obtain grant funding in our innovative LiftOff program to achieve their product development milestones,” said Andy Schwab, president of First Flight Venture Center. “Without the EGC team’s expertise and strategic help setting up this unique program, many early-stage companies would not be able to support the research needed to successfully advance their technologies.”

“There are thousands of different types of grants available, ranging from small grants for very early-stage projects, to multi-million-dollar grants for clinical trials,” said Garland.Garland points out that each year federal agencies distribute billions of dollars of grant money to support innovative technologies. The National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense and National Science Foundation provide capital that can be critical for entrepreneurs.

One popular federal program is the Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) program. Each year, the program awards more than $2 billion to support cutting-edge technologies. However, securing these grants can be a time-consuming and overwhelming task.

“The process of identifying, applying for and managing grants is complex, so many eligible companies don’t benefit from the available grant funding sources,” she said. “Also, entrepreneurs need to focus on running their companies and typically do not have the time required to prepare high-quality grant proposals.”

EGC’s team helps entrepreneurs navigate the grant-funding process, providing assistance with strategic planning, proposal preparation, accounting and grant compliance. In addition, all of its grant writers hold Ph.D.s and have held faculty positions at prestigious academic institutions or have entrepreneurial and industry experience.

Also on the list

Two other North Carolina life science-related companies made the list.

  • BioAgilytix of Durham, specializes in the bioanalysis of large molecules for pharmaceutical and agricultural companies. Its year-over-year revenues have increased 245 percent, to $35.9 million, putting the company’s national ranking at 1,833 out of 5,000.
  • Nuventra Pharma Sciences, a pharmaceutical consulting company, also in Durham, grew 146 percent to $11 million, ranking 2,819.