Nineteen entrepreneurs are taking home new funding from Main Street Ventures, making them the nonprofit's largest group of recipients yet.
Main Street Ventures, an Over-the-Rhine-based entrepreneur support organization, announced this week its latest batch of recipients for its signature Launch and Leap grants. Combined, the nineteen organizations received nearly $366,000 in equity-free funding.
Launch funding is designed for emerging, pre-revenue businesses at the prototype or product stage and aims to help increase the odds of reaching the market-entry point and beyond. While Main Street Ventures doesn’t disclose exact grant amounts, funding ranges from $5,000 to $10,000.
Leap funding, meanwhile, is dedicated to revenue-generating businesses to scale impact and increase their odds of survival. The grants are between $10,000 and $30,000.
Throughout its history, Main Street Ventures has given over $3 million to more than 100 businesses, according to a news release.
"We are deeply honored to be a 2023 recipient of the Main Street Ventures grant,” said Deborah Rudisell, owner of Cork N Crust, a gourmet pizzeria in Northern Kentucky. “This funding will not only allow us to renovate space for additional customer seating but will have a major impact on our business, staff, and our community."
The companies receiving Launch grants are:
- Cool Comforts develops innovative products to meet women’s unmet feminine care needs.
- GoFaster is a veteran-founded, high-performance running shoe brand.
- Todd is an online tool that makes the last chapter of a loved one’s life more manageable by democratizing and automating both estate planning, end of life care and settling affairs.
The companies receiving Leap grants are:
- Ripple will build a well for a community in need of accessing clean water on the other side of the world for every 2,000 Ripple bottles sold.
- Babushka Pierogies is an Eastern European food producer and grocer of imported goods located in historic Findlay Market.
- Beltways designs and manufactures the world's fastest, smartest and safest accelerating walkways.
- Better Blend Nutrition offers smoothies with nutrient-rich ingredients, eliminating unnecessary sugars and building products that benefit your nutrition and your tastebuds.
- BoxFull sends a HUG in a BOX for the moments people can't be there to comfort or celebrate the ones they love.
- Cooler Keg is a portable kegerator built into a cooler.
- Cork N Crust Bellevue is a gourmet pizzeria and full bar specializing in wines by the glass and vegan options that is expanding to the second floor of the building it owns so they can serve more guests, hire more staff and move further towards its goal of becoming a destination restaurant which will positively financially impact the entire Bellevue Entertainment district.
- Eve Floral Co. is an independent woman-owned flower shop and creative studio space in the historic Columbia-Tusculum neighborhood.
- Parts & Labor blends fresh ingredients and bold seasonings, using heat and smoke from hardwood fire, to deliver imaginative, yet familiar, barbecue with unforgettable flavors.
- Golden Gelato Company makes authentic Italian gelato and sorbet using the traditional Italian hot process while emphasizing its Kentucky roots and resources.
- Herban Vegans offers quality pan-cultural vegan cuisine.
- Soundtrace automates OSHA's Hearing Conservation Program requirements by providing noise monitoring, audiometric testing, and recordkeeping in a digital, end-to-end solution resulting in cost savings and mitigating risk for customers.
- Spasenses elevates the shower routine to a spa-like experience with Spa Senses Shower Steamers.
- Sunshine Caramel Company is an artisan gourmet caramel company.
- The Empanadas Box specializes in Argentine-style gourmet empanadas with tastes from around the world with an upscale, quick-serve concept.
- The Heirloom Chef creates fresh, healthy, warm-and-serve meal options for busy families or individuals, delivered weekly right to their doorstep.
