Opening doors of opportunity wider for San Antonio’s innovators

Port San Antonio and Tech Bloc expand their collaboration to empower and connect technology startups with global opportunities.

05-05-2025

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BY TRACY IDELL HAMILTON

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — Two of South Texas’ leading champions of innovation are expanding their collaboration to connect early-stage entrepreneurs with vital resources: talent, partners, capital and new markets..

Port San Antonio—the region’s largest technology hub and home to a thriving ecosystem of global technology leaders—is partnering with one of San Antonio’s foremost innovation ecosystem builders, to spark new momentum for the community’s technology-focused entrepreneurs.

Under the new agreement, Tech Bloc will launch a suite of programming and community-building activities at the Boeing Center at Tech Port in the heart of the Port campus. This collaboration will allow Tech Bloc to grow its reach by offering more engagements, from industry meetups to workshops, demonstrations and competitions.

Similarly, the Port’s customers, which include an array of global names and locally-headquartered enterprises on the leading edge of aerospace, space science, cybersecurity, national defense, industrial robotics and other applied technologies, will have a front-row seat to the latest innovations developed by Tech Bloc members that could bolster their own operations and strategic growth plans.

“Tech Bloc and the Port have been aligned for many years and shared many successes,” said Port San Antonio President and CEO Jim Perschbach. “So it made perfect sense that our teams should build upon that record to benefit Port customers, Tech Bloc members and, ultimately, the entire community as we work hand-in-hand to raise San Antonio’s profile as a global capital of innovation.”

Tech Bloc hosted its 2024 Tech Fuel competition at the Boeing Center at Tech Port.

“The new opportunities under our expanded partnership will be transformational for our organization, those we serve today and our future members,” said Tech Bloc Board Chair Will Conway. “Tech Port gives us a powerful launchpad to connect innovators to a valuable support network and give them strategic exposure to regional, national and global markets.”

Port San Antonio will serve as the first tech hub where Tech Bloc deepens its presence, with the goal of forging similar close collaborations with other innovation centers citywide in the years ahead.

“This partnership brings us closer to the original vision for Tech Bloc—to be a citywide driver of innovation,” added Tech Bloc CEO Ileana Gonzalez. “By embedding ourselves more deeply in places like Port San Antonio, we’re positioning local startups right next to global industry leaders—and that proximity can be a game changer."

The Port’s customers will have a front-row seat to the latest innovations developed by Tech Bloc members that could bolster their own operations and strategic growth plans.

Among recent collaborations, Port San Antonio and Tech Bloc partnered to develop an economic impact study of the region’s technology ecosystem. In 2023 and again in 2024, Tech Bloc hosted marquee events within the Boeing Center at Tech Port, including innovation showcases and a competition among startups with a $100,000 prize pool to accelerate the growth of their ventures

“We’re excited to work with the Port and other partners to make the Boeing Center and surrounding campus an even more vibrant, year-round gathering place for founders, innovators, and investors,” added Gonzalez, who announced the new partnership at Tech Bloc's monthly tech conclave, hosted May 1 at the Boeing Center at Tech Port.

The new agreement comes at a momentous time in the trajectory of the Tech Port campus. In recent months, the Port launched key development projects that are essential to expansions by technology employers of all sizes.

Rendering of Innovation Tower planned at Port San Antonio. Credit: Port San Antonio.

That includes Innovation Tower, a state-of-the-art office, as well as a vertiport alongside the runway at Kelly Field. The vertiport facility will initially serve as a critical test site for collaborations among private, public and academic partners in the development of upcoming generations of “flying taxis,” otherwise known as electric vertical landing and take-off vehicles (eVTOLs).

The tower and vertiport are components of an expansive development strategy, which will include added facilities for cybersecurity operations, more educational spaces and an array of amenities.

Port San Antonio’s planned defense industrial research campus. Credit: Port San Antonio.

“Given our plans, it is the right time to grow Tech Bloc’s presence here,” said Perschbach. “Our campus is now the large gateway to a world of opportunities for the thousands of people who are already building their futures here. Now, with the Tech Bloc team hosting activations here, we know there are even bigger things for us to look forward to. And we’ll have fun along the way.”