Main Street Ventures is pleased to announce our second-quarter grant recipients. After a record-breaking quarter of applications, Main Street Ventures selected 10 projects to fund through our two Grant Funding programs. This group of Grant Recipients includes a variety of industries including emerging technology, consumer products, and new storefront locations.
Main Street Ventures provides two different types of funding; Launch and Leap Grants. Launch funding provides emerging, pre-revenue businesses at the Prototype or Product stage (showing clear evidence of direct customer engagement validating the business model and product) with $5,000 - $10,000 of equity-free funding to increase the odds of reaching the Market Entry-stage and beyond. Leap funding provides promising, revenue-generating businesses with $10,000 - $30,000 of equity-free funding to scale their community impact and increase the odds of survival.
The companies receiving a Launch Grant are:
Bosa Life: Bosa is a digital platform that integrates productivity tools to easily collect all your tasks in one place and connect each task to the right resource to help you get the task done.
Koinage: Koinage is an API-driven platform, and mobile application to help redefine the experience with loose change for both consumers and retailers.
TinnCann: TinnCann is an online marketplace where anyone can access the undivided attention of some of the world's most extraordinary experts.
The companies receiving Leap Grants are:
Lulu’s Sweets Boutique: Lulu’s Sweet Bites creates gourmet cakes, cupcakes, and macarons.
Mom ‘n ‘em Coffee: Mom 'n 'em is a coffee & wine shop that was opened by the Ferrari Brothers for their Mother Theresa to serve as a third place for the community of Cincinnati and beyond.
Product Refinery - Cleanup Cart: Product Refinery created the Cleanup Cart - a freestanding mobile cleaning unit that can be used by community organizations to clean up their neighborhoods in a modern, engaging, and simple way.
Qlicious: Qlicious creates premium Handcrafted Bubble tea and whole-heartedly made pastries.
REKKIE: REKKIE creates augmented reality goggles for action sports like skiing and paintball.
The Passion Plate: The Passion Plate provides healthy, well-balanced meals that are flavorful and nutritious and will help people live a more sustained life.
Untold Content: Untold Content created Narratize - a SaaS solution that leverages Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help busy professionals create high-impact documents and stories.
In total, Main Street Ventures awarded $206,000 in equity-free grant funding this quarter. These recipients will go on to use this funding to execute their respective plans to take their businesses to the next level. The funding from Main Street Ventures continues to go directly into the regional economy.
About Main Street Ventures
Main Street Ventures is working to become the community-funded initiative that makes entrepreneurship possible for everyone in Greater Cincinnati, by supporting entrepreneurs with what they need, when they need it: Capital, Connections, and Education. We look to support all good ideas and founders, but with a particular focus on women and minority entrepreneurs who have been historically underrepresented in the startup community.
For more information, visit mainstventures.org.