St. Louis’ entrepreneurial economy set records in 2021 for the number of startups that hauled in massive funding rounds and completed high-profile exits.
Through its Startup Exit Awards, St. Louis Inno celebrates St. Louis' later-stage startup successes and the individuals who have made huge contributions to the startup industry. It includes awards for Exits of the Year, Top Equity Funding Transaction and Lifetime Achievement.
Winners of the awards will be profiled in the July 29 edition of the St. Louis Business Journal and celebrated at an event on July 26 at the Boo Cat Club. The event will also unveil the winners of St. Louis Inno’s inaugural Fire Awards. Finalists for the Fire Awards were announced earlier this week.
Here’s the 2022 Startup Exit Awards winners, by category:
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Winner: Jim Eberlin
In 2021, Eberlin completed a "hat trick" with the sale of his startup TopOPPS to San Jose-based software firm Xactly Corp. It marked the third time that a St. Louis-born technology startup founded by Eberlin reached a major exit. The other companies to reach exits include customer success firm Gainsight and Planful (formerly Host Analytics), which provides financial planning and analysis software. TopOPPS, which was founded in 2014 and has rebranded to Xactly Forecasting, provides sales pipeline management and forecasting software.
EXITS OF THE YEAR
Winner: Benson Hill
Winner: Nerdy
Nerdy and Benson Hill, two of St. Louis’ stalwart startups, both become public companies in 2021 through mergers with special purpose acquisition companies. The deals each valued the companies as worth more than $1 billion, minting them as so-called unicorns. Both deals marked wins for St. Louis’ startup ecosystem, with Nerdy being created by founder and CEO Chuck Cohn while a student at Washington University and Benson Hill being developed out of technology created at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Creve Coeur.
TOP EQUITY FUNDING TRANSACTIONS | winners and finalists
Winner: Wugen
In July 2021, Wugen announced it raised $172 million in a Series B funding round to advance advance clinical development of its cancer-fighting therapies. Based in the Cortex innovation district, Wugen in March said it dosed the first patient in the initial phase of a clinical trial for its drug WU-CART-007. The trial is focused on studying the drug's treatment of relapsed or refractory (R/R) T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL)/lymphoblastic lymphoma (LBL). Founded in 2018, Wugen is developing “off the shelf” cell therapies to treat various cancers. The startup was created via technology licensed from Washington University and is developing so-called natural killer (NK) and T-cell therapies.
Finalists:
- Arcadian Infracom
- Geneoscopy
- EmpowerMe Wellness
