Fire Starters/Community Builders
Winner: 39 North
Since forming as its own nonprofit entity in April 2023, the 39 North Agtech Innovation District has moved quickly to advance the innovation district's operations and long-term strategy. 39 North leads the 600-acre innovation district that includes the Danforth Center, BRDG Park, Helix Center Biotech Incubator and Bayer Crop Science.
39 North opened its new 10,000-square-foot Collaboration Hub inside the Edge@BRDG building on the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center campus, which serves as the nonprofit's headquarters and aims to be a focal point for events and coworking within the innovation district. It has also hired a program director and is seeking to add new office and lab space that could be used for growing startups, ensuring they remain in the innovation district as they add headcount and revenue.
The 39 North Agtech Innovation District organization recently moved into a new Collaboration Hub. How will this new space help 39 North grow? The Hub serves a critical purpose for 39 North and our growth. One of our key missional goals is to create conditions for innovation in agtech and agri-food tech to thrive. The Hub gives us a physical platform to host important conversations, bring together stakeholders to design collaborative projects, and to introduce innovators to one another to advance their projects. The Hub also serves as a meeting spot and working space for visitors and companies visiting our region, helping to show them the connected and collaborative nature of the St. Louis ecosystem, a critical component for business attraction.
How is being headquartered in St. Louis a competitive advantage for 39 North? Our location in St. Louis is core to 39 North's identity. We were formed to help build our region's leadership in agtech and agri-food tech, so there's nowhere else we would consider being! St. Louis' existing agtech ecosystem is known and respected around the world through the efforts of partners such as BioSTL, The Danforth Center, and many, many others. We are helping to build that ecosystem as it continues to develop and doing that in close partnership with myriad other support organizations and structures.
What was your company's biggest achievement in the past year? We were launched as an independent entity just a year ago, which was an extremely powerful signal to the world that St. Louis' agtech ecosystem is continuing to grow and innovate to meet the needs of the sector. Announcing the opening of The Hub on our one-year anniversary was a huge accomplishment that we expected we would need 2-3 years to implement.
What is your company's top goal for the next year? Organizationally, we are still in startup mode, so we're growing quickly and continuing to develop and refine our strategy to best serve our mission. As it specifically relates to our key stakeholders, the companies and innovators working in the agtech sector, we know that we need additional affordable lab and office solutions within 39 North. We're calling this project "Graduation Space" as it specifically relates to companies that are ready to "graduate" from our Helix Incubator, but still want shared facilities, equipment, and community. We hope to have a plan for a Graduation Space solution within the next year.
Are you currently hiring? If so, for what roles? We are not currently hiring for full time roles but are always looking for people who care about our mission and want to get involved!
See photos from the 2024 Fire Awards event below:
