A state plan to help foreign-born entrepreneurs stay in the country is getting a boost from the private sector.
Silicon Valley Bank is donating $30,000 to the Massachusetts Global Entrepreneur in Residence program, which helps startup founders wrangle the visas they need to keep working on their ideas in the Bay State.
That adds to the initial $100,000 that state lawmakers set aside for the program, which is based at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
The Global Entrepreneur in Residence program is intended to help foreign workers and entrepreneurs stay in Massachusetts if they want to launch, or even work at, an early stage company.
Once those students graduate, they can be caught in a furious competition for a limited number of H1-B visas, which allow employers to sponsor a certain number of foreign workers with in-demand skills.
Those visas also require employers to pay wages at industry standard levels, which can be impractical at startups, where founders and employees are often working for less money in exchange for company stock.
The Global Entrepreneur in Residence program seeks to bridge that gap by giving entrepreneurs or startup employees part-time jobs at universities, which do not have to cap the number of visas they sponsor.
The program plans to expand from two to 12 participants this year.
“The program participants would not be in Massachusetts today if it wasn’t for the Global EIR program. They would have started their companies elsewhere or not at all,” said venture capitalist Jeff Bussgang, who helped start the initiative.