Durham entrepreneurial support foundation NC IDEA has announced the winners of its NC IDEA MICRO Grant program.
22 winners from across the state won $220,000 combined.
“The headline there is rural,” said Thom Ruhe, president and CEO of NC IDEA. “Rural showed up, which was neat.”
The winning companies ran the gambit, from a “twist on an ancient Persian [beverage] recipe” (Raleigh-based Jabin Beverage Co) to robots “learning to automate surgery” (Morrisville-based Vitality Robotics) to a “no mess” sunscreen application system (Charlotte-based No Mess SPF).
And as Ruhe said, they also ran the gamut when it came to geography – with companies from rural areas such as Candler, Elizabeth City, Weaverville and Salisbury represented on the list.
Seven winners were from the Triangle region, including four from Raleigh.
The NC IDEA Micro awards are $10,000 project-based grants targeted toward funding young companies looking to validate and advance their ideas. The program was first piloted back in 2018 as an expansion of NC IDEA’s long-running seed grant program. The goal was to provide funding to young startups not yet positioned for NC IDEA’s traditional $50,000 grants.
A look at the first cycle shows the winners had longevity. Of the original 15 winners, at least nine are still in existence today, according to their websites. Since that first awards cycle back in 2018, the program has awarded nearly $1.2 million to 118 companies.
This cycle’s winners were chosen after a three-month competitive application and selection process that, according to NC IDEA, drew a record number of applications from across the state.
Ruhe said that between the Seed and MICRO grant programs, NC IDEA fielded 678 applications. About half were eligible, and evaluated. Typically, the micro grant program awards 15 grants, but Ruhe said it was just too hard to narrow down this time.
“We basically went to where we felt we had to based upon the quality of the submissions,” he said.
The winners:
• 828 Labs LLC – Candler
• Armada IQ – Charlotte
• BattleBuggies To Go LLC – Fayetteville
• Bristles, LLC – Durham
• Content Commanders – Elizabeth City
• Edison Marks – Weaverville
• Flow Phantom (Bloodworth Ventures, LLC.) – Raleigh
• Fun Mom Band – Durham
• Home For Life Design – Salisbury
• iEDAPTS LLC – Charlotte
• Jabin Beverage Co – Raleigh
• Mycologics LLC – Alexandria
• MyMatR – Raleigh
• No Mess SPF – Charlotte
• Padeo – Raleigh
• Sure! – Greenville
• Three Strands Recovery Wear – Salisbury
• Undecided – Asheville
• Vitality Robotics, Inc. – Morrisville
• Wishful, Inc. – Charlotte
• Worxstr LLC – Charlotte
• Wreckingball Systems LLC – Wilmington
