Larta Institute, a downtown Los Angeles accelerator for small businesses in the health care, agriculture and energy sectors, announced this week that its Larta Inc. subsidiary had been granted an exclusive Department of Energy contract to aid small businesses across the country.

The DOE selected Larta to manage its Commercialization Assistance Program for the year beginning September 2017. The value of the contract to Larta was not disclosed.

Larta Inc. will handle management of the program for Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, awardees under CAP. The DOE granted more than $224 million to its SBIR recipients last year.

Claudia Cantoni who manages the CAP program for the department, did not return calls seeking information on the value of the contract for Larta.

Larta brings together entrepreneur advisers to advise small businesses on a six- to eight-month period, helping with a rage of issues, from marketing plans to partnership prospects. The CAP contract is expected to expand that capability.

“The purpose of the program is to transform ideas into commercialization or in other words, be able to take research to market,” said Rohit Shukla, chief executive of Larta Institute. He declined to say what the value of the contract was to Larta.

With the award, Larta looks to assist a portfolio of 750 or more companies a year, Shukla said. In 2016, Larta assisted 379 SBIR companies under four federal government agency contracts.

Larta Institute was founded in 1993 and served science-based entrepreneurs in the five-county L.A. region until 2003, when it expanded on a national and global scale, Shukla said.

Manufacturing and trade reporter Shwanika Narayan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @shwanika.