19 new startups and early-stage businesses awarded $950K in non-dilutive grants
Donald M. Suggs, publisher and executive editor of the St. Louis American, was honored with Arch Grants’ 2020 Entrepreneur Award at its 8th annual Arch Grants Gala on October 28. John and Alison Ferring chaired the Entrepreneur Award Committee in honor of Suggs.
“I am deeply gratified by this high honor,” Suggs said.
“Arch Grants is a forward-thinking organization, and I hold in high regard its contributions to the region’s aspirations for a more inclusive, booming innovation community in St. Louis. Arch Grants has continued for almost a decade to pursue its bold, audacious goal of attracting and retaining entrepreneurs who will contribute to a future they say is limitless for St. Louis and the world.”
Past Entrepreneur Award winners include Maxine Clark (2013), Dave Steward (2014), Rodger Riney (2015), Michael Neidorff (2016), Jerry Kent (2017), Amb. Sam Fox (2018) and Bob Chapman (2019).
As part of its first-ever Virtual Gala, Arch Grants also awarded $950,000 in non-dilutive grants to 19 new startups and early-stage businesses. Each of the winning companies will receive $50,000, as well as pro-bono and heavily discounted professional services from respected local firms. In turn, the startups will commit to operating their business from St. Louis for a period of at least one year
Arch Grants’ 2020 Cohort includes companies moving to St. Louis from cities around the country, including San Francisco, Minneapolis, Charlotte, and several others.
The 2020 Arch Grants companies are:
• 3D Gloop! (Edwardsville, IL) creates unparalleled adhesives and coatings for use in additive manufacturing/3D printing.
• ATR Thrive (St. Louis) develops and markets natural/novel feed supplements for infant animals in the agriculture food industry.
• Bloom Beauty Brand (St. Louis) is a beauty-tech/social mission company that creates customizable, all-natural beauty products.
• Bold Xchange (Charlotte, NC) an online shop offering fast shipping on a curated collection of products from black-owned businesses.
• Disruptel (St. Louis) has a visually aware artificial intelligence technology that allows users to ask questions about the video content they are watching on their voice enabled device, and receive a visual answer back as an overlay on their screen.
• Eemerg Roadside Assistance (St. Louis) is an on-demand mobile roadside assistance platform geared toward customers with limited roadside assistance options.
• Flipstik (St. Louis) is a technology company that uses NASA’s adhesive research to create consumer goods. Their namesake product, The Flipstik, allows the user to stick their phone to virtually any flat surface for hands-free use.
• HUM Industrial Technology (St. Louis) has developed a wireless sensor system for freight railcars. Hum’s technology combines low power, wireless communications, geospatial tracking, and predictive analytics to make rail shipping transparent and reliable.
• Inclusively (Richmond, VA) is a human-first employment solution built in collaboration with people with disabilities for people with disabilities.
• Kwema (St. Louis) is the OnStar meets E-Zpass for employee safety using wearables that require no behavior change.
• LabsLand (San Francisco, CA/Balboa, Spain) is democratizing STEM education by providing online access to real laboratories from all over the world.
• Mission Control (St. Louis) is a software platform that enables organizations to gather and grow their communities through recreational esports.
• Mosaic (Eden Prairie, MN) aggregates electronic medical record data from disparate sources to provide a complete picture of a patient’s care.
• Native Pet (St. Louis) makes supplements for dogs and cats that get real results, made with responsibly sourced clean label ingredients chosen for their natural power to help your pet feel best.
• Neer (Kansas City, MO) has created an Artificial Intelligence Platform for Water Systems.
• Rebundle (Charlotte, NC) is making synthetic braiding hair better for the scalp and better for the environment.
• ServiceTarget (Bozeman, MT) helps teams quickly create self-service applications designed to make customers more self-sufficient.
• Stratodyne (Columbia) uses smart balloons to capture real-time geospatial data from the edge of space.
• Well Principled (St. Louis) is an A.I. management consultant that optimizes marketing and supply chain strategy for major CPG brands and retailers.
The 2020 cohort includes 7 companies whose products or services utilize geospatial technology and/or capture geospatial data. In 2019, Arch Grants made a commitment to award at least five grants over the next several years to geospatial and geospatial-related startups, to support the growing geospatial sector in St. Louis.
“After announcing the geospatial grants in 2019, we immediately began getting interest from companies around the country that were aware of the NGA’s expanding footprint in St. Louis and were excited about the potential opportunities here,” said Arch Grants Executive Director Emily Lohse-Busch.
“We ended up receiving almost 200 applications from geospatial-related companies. In addition to awarding some incredible companies this year, I’m thrilled with the connections we were able to make with universities, professional societies and geospatial collectives around the world. I anticipate that we’ll only get more interest in 2021.”
Arch Grants also redirected a portion of funds in March to provide short-term grants to past Arch Grants Companies to help them weather the storm, pivot and/or quickly scale in the first weeks of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Arch Grants Relief Fund awarded over $140,000 to 16 companies to help them retain employees, offset costs from payment delays and/or scale to meet demand in March and April.
Since 2012, Arch Grants has awarded over $9 million in cash grants to attract or retain more than 170 early-stage businesses in St. Louis, invigorating the city’s startup scene with new talent and ideas and helping to shape the future of the St. Louis economy. Through Arch Grants’ program activities and connections throughout the region, these companies have gone on to create over 1,900 jobs, generate over $390 million in revenue, and attract over $290 million in follow-on capital.