The Oklahoma Department of Commerce announced today that the agency received 266 applications for the 2025 Oklahoma Innovation Expansion Program (OIEP). Projects were approved at 201 companies, which will create 967 jobs and generate $52 million in new payroll over the next 12 months.
“A lot of people don’t realize that 70% of our incentives go toward existing Oklahoma companies,” said Evan Brown, Executive Director of EDGE. “We want to invest in companies that invest in our state. Since its launch in 2020 by Governor Stitt, OIEP has been a wildly successful program, encouraging new capital investment from companies, supporting existing jobs and creating thousands of new ones.”
The approved projects represent $82 million in capital investment across 64 communities in Oklahoma, with a projected economic impact of $278 million. The awards are mostly for new equipment and construction projects at small businesses like Tomcat Aviation LLC in Midwest City. Tomcat Aviation is a family-owned business that specializes in jet engine component repair.
“Oklahoma Commerce comes through with financial support to help small businesses, it’s a great day to be in Oklahoma,” said John Coates, President of Tomcat Aviation LLC. “This award allows us to invest in a new piece of machinery that will increase our current capacity, which means we will also need to hire additional workers.”
OIEP was created to support high-impact new capital investment across a broad range of industries, helping diversify the state’s economy, leading to new product development or increased capacity at Oklahoma’s existing companies. Businesses that participated in the 2024 round of OIEP have already created 551 new jobs and generated more than $250 million in new sales.
To see a full list of the 2025 award recipients, click here.
