The St. Louis region’s innovation economy is heating up.
Through its Fire Awards, St. Louis Inno aims to recognize the companies and organizations that are setting the innovation and entrepreneurial economy ablaze. Our inaugural Fire Awards honors 19 startups, investors and organizations that reached key milestones in the last year, helping to ignite St. Louis’ innovation economy.
The 19 finalists for our Fire Awards were sourced through nominations and chosen by the St. Louis Inno editorial team. Finalists are grouped into five categories: agtech, biotech/health tech, software/innovation, catalyst/investors and fire starters/community builders. Some things we looked for in selecting the Fire Award honorees were: new funding, adding headcount, social and community impact, product launches, company pivots, company growth, and amazing stories of innovators reshaping the ecosystem.
For each category, one winner will be selected from the finalists, with a judging panel of local innovation leaders choosing the winners.
Winners will be named at our Fire Awards celebration, which will be held July 26 at the Boo Cat Club. We hope that event serves as not only a celebration of the winning startups, but the entire St. Louis entrepreneurial ecosystem. The event will also honor our Startup Exit Awards winners, which will be announced later this week.
Here’s the 2022 Fire Award honorees, by category:
Agtech/Food tech
CoverCress: After being named earlier this year by St. Louis Inno as a 2022 Startup to Watch, CoverCress has also shown why it’s on fire. The agriculture technology startup, which is bringing a new cash crop to market, in April announced its inked a commercial partnership with Chesterfield-based agriculture giant Bunge (NYSE: BG) for its crop to be used to develop renewable fuel. It also closed on $26 million in fresh funding, securing capital from and Ramon, California-based Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX). The milestones come as CoverCress this year plans for a full commercial launch of its crop.
Honeymoon Chocolates: Honeymoon Chocolates, a maker of healthier chocolate, has come a long way from its start by Cam and Haley Loyet in a dorm room at Illinois Wesleyan University. In February, Honeymoon opened a new factory and retail store in Clayton as part of an effort at both expanding its nationwide footprint and elevating its brand locally. Honeymoon, which sells “bean to bar” chocolate that includes no refined sugar and is sweetened using only raw honey, has also expanded to new retail locations and closed on $300,000 in funding from investors.
Rootberry: Like many startups, rootberry launched out of the need to solve a problem. Co-founder Marc Connor struggled to find quick and easy healthy meals when he adopted a plant-based diet. That led to the launch of rootberry, which makes and sells prepared plant-based meals, shareables, salads and desserts. Since its launch in 2021, rootberry has expanded quickly, launching with a direct-to-consumer delivery service model and expanding to retail stores and universities. It says it's on pace to boost its sales eight-fold this year compared to its first year of operations. It currently employs a team of about 25 and earlier this year established its headquarters at the roughly 9,000-square-foot former Weber Grill location at the Saint Louis Galleria in Richmond Heights.
Biotech/Health care
EmpowerMe Wellness: Within the past year, EmpowerMe Wellness had targeted expansion at a furious pace. In January, the provider of senior health services said it had raised more than $100 million from local investors. It’s used that funding to expand its senior health services to more than 20 states and expand its workforce, which includes more than 1,000 employees. Additionally, EmpowerMe Wellness has recently opened a new diagnostics laboratory at its headquarters at 1335 Strassner Drive and closed on the acquisition of a physical therapy provider based in Florida.
TCARE: Since its relocation to St. Louis after winning an Arch Grant in 2019, TCARE has been on a growth spurt. TCARE, which provides technology to help senior caregivers, says it has tripled its annual recurring revenue year over year and grown to a team of 160 employees, which marks 400% headcount growth since 2020. It has also focused on product development, acquiring New York-based software firm Ruby Home Services Inc. in December 2021 and rolling out a new insurance product for caregivers.
Babyation: In April, the former Arch Grants winner reached a key milestone: It released what it describes as the “world’s most discreet breast pump.” Babyation’s pump, which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, can be operated with a mobile app. The startup says its device also includes smaller breast shields, a quiet motor and simpler design than traditional breast pumps. And so far it’s experiencing strong demand for its new product, with the company saying it has a waitlist that totals 4,500 customers.
Catalyst/investors
Cultivation Capital: In April, Cultivation Capital celebrated a major milestone, marking a decade of startup investments in St. Louis. With its launch in 2012, Cultivation Capital sought to fill what it believed was a funding gap locally for early stage software startups. Since then, it’s amassed an investment portfolio of more than 150 startups, backing companies in the software, agtech and life sciences sector. In 2021, it expanded its investment thesis, launching a fund to invest in geospatial technology companies, a move that comes as St. Louis civic leaders have sought to boost the region’s geospatial sector.
Arch Grants: In 2021, Arch Grants reached its tenth year of providing non-dilutive grants to early stage startups in St. Louis, surpassing 200 companies funded through its annual startup contest. It also expanded its funding for local companies, launching its Growth Grants program that provides follow-on capital to its portfolio companies. The nonprofit also plans to increase the amount of funding, starting this year, for its annual startup contest. It will award at least $75,000 to each company, up from $50,000.
Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator: Since inking a partnership with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in 2018, the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) has placed a focus on elevating agtech startups in St. Louis. Its agtech incubator program has funded 21 companies, providing them up to $250,000 in non-dilutive funding for research at the Danforth Center. The early stage investments are paying off, with those firms attracting $94 million in capital and having an average growth rate of 57%.
Software/innovation
Transactly: The St. Charles-based real estate technology startup has been on a rapid growth clip, tripling its annual revenue and expanding the scope of its businesses. Within roughly the past year, the company says it has expanded its workforce by 58%, growing to 89 full-time employees, and has acquired four companies. Transactly provides real estate agents and brokerages with tech-enabled transaction coordinators and services to assist in processing and closing real estate transactions. It used its acquisitions to create a new business segment called Connect, which focuses on providing homebuyers with a streamlined way to set up home utilities and services.
Balto: Balto, which has developed “real-time call guidance” software used by contact centers, has been busy in the past year. In August, it announced a $37.5 million Series B funding round and a new headquarters in Downtown West. It’s also more than doubled its headcount since April 2021, growing to a team of more than 100 employees. It also placed an emphasis on product development, releasing two new products to help agents and managers improve call center operations. Since its launch in 2017, Balto says its technology has guided more than 125 million calls.
Textel: The metrics stand out for Textel, which has developed text messaging software for contact centers and businesses. It says its annual revenue increased by more than 70% year over year in 2021. That growth came as the startup says it experienced 57% growth in new customers last year. It is projecting 100% revenue growth this year. Textel, headquartered just south of downtown, boasts an impressive roster of clients, with brands like 3M, Sony and Vera Bradley using its technology.
Graphite Lab: The Maryland Heights video game developer has worked with some of the biggest names in industry, creating games for brands like Atari, Disney and Hasbro. It’s now developing more original games of its own. In March, Graphite Lab said it entered into an agreement with Atari to publish its original puzzle-game Kombinera. The studio has also boosted its capabilities in areas like game maintenance, user acquisition and audience retention to generate more revenue from the games it develops. In 2021, it says its revenue increased 43%.
OptiFunder: Mortgage technology startup OptiFunder has grown quickly since its launch in 2018. The past year has been key to its growth spurt. In November, it announced it raised $25 million from investors to propel its expansion strategy. The startup says its customer roster grew by 140% in 2021 and signed on 19 clients that are top 100 U.S. mortgage lenders. It’s also placed an emphasis on expanding its technology with new tools and features. It has 29 employees, 13 of whom have been hired since the start of 2022.
Evolution St. Louis: Since opening its high-tech knit manufacturing facility in Grand Center in 2019, Evolution St. Louis has sewed success. The 32,000-square-foot facility aims to help companies keep their manufacturing in the U.S. and continue St. Louis’ prowess in garment manufacturing. It says clients include U.S. military, U.S. Postal Service, Tesla and Ashley Furniture. Within the past year, Evolution St. Louis has grown from five employees to 45, with plans to hire for another 100 to 150 employees in the next one to two years.
Fire starters/Community builders
Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Responsible for leading entrepreneurship initiatives at Washington University, the Skandalaris Center helps the university’s students, faculty and alumni launch and grow their own startup ventures. With that, the center has had an active role in developing the next generation of local entrepreneurs. In the 2021-22 academic year, it provided nearly $100,000 in non-dilutive funding to startups. It supports an array of programming designed to bring students from across academic disciplines to learn about entrepreneurship. It also places a focus on engaging with members of the St. Louis community to participate in its programming and mentor young entrepreneurs.
UMSL Accelerate: UMSL Accelerate, the entrepreneurship program of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, has played a key role in seeking to boost the diversity of St. Louis’ startup economy. In 2021, it launched its UMSL DEI Accelerator, which has provided $50,000 to 11 startups led by minority founders. It’s also helped cultivate the next generation to the local startup sector, using its accelerator program to provide paid internships to its students.
Harris-Stowe State University Minority Entrepreneurship Collaborative Center for Advancement (MECCA): Since its launch in 2021, Harris Stowe’s MECCA program has moved fast to be a resource for minority entrepreneurs. It’s secured more than $2 million in funding to offer programs for entrepreneurs and to build a Center of Innovation & Entrepreneurship. MECCA provides entrepreneurs with educational programming, pitch competition training, events and scholarships. Earlier this year, it launched a new incubator program for entrepreneurs who have been through the justice system. The program’s first cohort had seven graduates.
BioSTL: As an innovation hub focused on advancing the region’s bioscience industries, BioSTL has placed an emphasis on promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in St. Louis’ innovation economy by helping minority entrepreneurs create and grow startups in the bioscience sector. It also teamed up with the Cortex Innovation Community and the Center for Emerging Technologies to establish VOICES, an entrepreneurship affinity group that facilitates dialogue and networking among minorities working in St. Louis' startup ecosystem.
