The Missouri Technology Corp. (MTC) is pursuing new initiatives to boost startups statewide, including a $95 million capital program for small businesses, exploring a first-of-its-kind financing model for entrepreneurs and creating an internship program to connect more young people with upstart companies.
Those are a few of the items outlined in a blueprint unveiled last week by MTC, part of state government, as it seeks to elevate entrepreneurship in Missouri. Created by the Missouri General Assembly, MTC is a public-private partnership designed to promote entrepreneurship and provide investment to startups and entrepreneur support organizations.
For MTC, the blueprint is described as an “implementation plan” for a strategic plan it published earlier this year. The strategic plan, the Catalyzing Innovation Report, outlined five “key challenges" the state’s entrepreneurial economy faces — such as a declining amount of venture capital deals statewide and too few individuals involved in entrepreneurship in Missouri — while offering 16 recommendations to combat them.
“The development of the Catalyzing Innovation Report was a milestone for the state,” said Dedric Carter, MTC's chairman, in a statement. “Moving the wisdom of that report into an actionable plan positions us to unlock increased entrepreneurial opportunities for all of Missouri.”
MTC’s implementation plan shares how the organization plans to pursue the recommendations in the strategic plan, with MTC saying it will take on some of them itself and “provide support for others.” It said it has placed the greatest importance on initiatives that have the “highest economic impact.”
Several of the initiatives outlined in MTC’s implementation plan involve providing capital to businesses and entrepreneur support organizations. Most significantly, MTC will oversee $95 million in federal funds that were allocated for the State Small Business Credit Initiative. MTC said it plans to dole out the $95 million to small businesses and startups over an eight-to-10-year period and expects to receive the first batch of funding from the $95 million in fiscal 2023.
MTC also plans to launch a new $17 million grant program that will be funded through $8.5 million from its budget and an additional $8.5 million from its venture capital investment program. MTC said the new grant program, beginning in fiscal 2024, will fund all of its grant making statewide, including its existing grant program and any new grant initiatives it launches. During the current fiscal year, MTC says it plans to create and pilot new grant programs.
"Specifically, MTC will look to establish grant programs designed to support entrepreneurs’ access to affordable physical workspace across the state, the development of regional nodes across the state to allow entrepreneurs direct access to resources in their regions, and the continued support of programs and organizations designed to provide resources critical to the success of the state’s entrepreneurs," the implementation plan says.
Additionally, MTC said it plans to research other new grant programs in fiscal years 2023 and 2024, with hopes of beginning to pilot such programs in 2024, that help create and expand early stage venture capital angel investment groups. Another financing program that MTC plans to consider is the formation of Missouri Rural Vitality Funds, a new funding mechanism that would allow residents to use personal and alternative assets as collateral for banks to give loans to entrepreneurs in the state’s rural regions. The strategic plan published earlier this year by MTC called Missouri Rural Vitality Funds a “novel” concept that hasn’t been launched elsewhere in the U.S. MTC said it will study the concept and seek out partners in fiscal 2023, with the potential to pilot the program in fiscal 2024.
As part of its implementation plan, MTC plans to take a direct role in helping startups more easily find resources and employees. That will include creating an Entrepreneurial Pathways Program that would be a digital “intake system for entrepreneurs” and connect them with resources available to startups. It also plans to create a pilot program for paid internships at startups in fiscal years 2024 and 2025. If successful, MTC says it could launch a statewide internship program in fiscal 2026.
Other key initiatives outlined in the plan include exploring the creation of a statewide/regional entrepreneur-in-residence program and peer working groups that allow collaboration statewide among startups and entrepreneur support groups. A full list of the initiatives can be found here.
MTC has been given a funding boost in recent years, with the Missouri General Assembly allocating it $31 million in fiscal 2023, up from $3 million in the prior year.
