The Charlotte area’s entrepreneurial community is once again receiving a boost to excel their businesses.
NC IDEA, a private foundation created to help entrepreneurs achieve their potential, granted five local startups $10,000 each in its ninth Micro grant cycle. The Charlotte-area companies were among 15 North Carolina startups awarded a total of $150,000 in funding. The grant recipients were revealed in the foundation’s announcement yesterday.
The NC IDEA Micro grant program awards $10,000 to budding businesses that seek to execute their entrepreneurial idea. The program was piloted in spring 2018 and was created as an extension of the organization's Seed grant program. Seed provides funding to young startups not yet positioned for the foundation’s customary $50,000 grants, NC IDEA said.
Since spring 2018, NC IDEA Micro has distributed about $1.5 million to 148 companies across the state, the foundation said.
“We have seen yet another competitive cycle and a continued need for funding and support from all parts of the state,” said Thom Ruhe, president and CEO of NC IDEA, in a statement. “These young companies speak to the economic potential of North Carolina and they represent the great work of our ecosystem partners to level the playing field for all promising startups, with 13 of the 15 grant recipients representing underserved communities.”
NC IDEA said the 15 North Carolina grant awardees were chosen after a three-month competitive application and selection process. It collected 135 applications from across the state.
Here are the Charlotte area grant recipients:
- Just Her Rideshare
- Salus
- The Quick Space
- Seniors in Transition
- Flasky Labware
See the full list of NC IDEA Micro grant recipients here.
NC IDEA also announced today 11 fall 2022 finalists for the 34th cycle of its $50,000 Seed grant. They were chosen from 28 semifinalists drawn from 158 applications the foundation received in March. Roughly five to seven grant recipients will be announced at NC IDEA’s 2022 Ecosystem Summit, Nov. 14-15.
The finalists, based in the Triangle area, are: Animal Cancer Dx, Bake Eat Love, Bristles, LabRunner, MyMatR, OpiAID, Phase Dock, ROSA Technology, ShopAgain, Social Cascasde and Spring & Mulberry.
