ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – Nearly 70 startups are competing for a share of $1.4 million in equity-free funding through ArchGrants, with 20 companies set to receive grants.
Companies selected will be required to relocate to St. Louis.
Gabe Angieri, executive director of ArchGrants, said the organization is betting on early-stage companies to become major employers in the region.
“We’re providing this funding support to early-stage companies expecting, hoping, and betting that they’re going to become the next big employers, corporate citizens and leaders of the region,” Angieri said.
Angieri said the program has drawn founders from across the country, many of whom say they are not only seeking funding but also a permanent home. Wole Idowu, of ToyzElectronics, said his company is prepared to make that commitment.
“We actually want to hire talent here,” Idowu said. “My CFO and I, we’re already ready to move here.”
The competing startups span a range of industries, from technology that highlights worker skills and translates them for employers, to ag-tech. Pei Yen, of New Heritage AG, said St. Louis offers access to resources that make it a strong hub for plant science.
“One of the leading plant science entrepreneurial communities, and so it’s really access to things like greenhouses and growth chamber space, as well as just a lot of technical expertise, as well as people that we can hire and integrate into our team,” Yen said. “So it’s a great hub.”
Over the last 15 years, ArchGrants has invested more than $20 million into nearly 300 companies. Those businesses have gone on to create more than 4,000 jobs across the region.
This year, Matt Bitner-Glindzics served as a judge for the competition. One year ago, he was a grant recipient himself — pitching a startup that designed a keychain case to make carrying Narcan easier.
“It’s really kind of incredible to have gone through this process and know what ArchGrants meant to us,” Bitner-Glindzics said. “There’s such deep community and civic pride here that people in St. Louis and groups like Arch Grants or bio generators take such pride in companies that choose to be here and choose to build here.”
Bitner-Glindzics said the grant allowed him to leave a second job he had been working to keep his business afloat.
“Because when we got it, I was bartending 35 hours a week to keep the lights on while working 60, 78 hours a week on this,” he said. “I was burnt out. I was exhausted. And this grant gave me the ability to truly go full-time on the business. And that’s what’s allowed it to scale to the success that it’s at now.”
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