Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Ten more start-ups receive state EDGE grants

David Carter
Volunteer Brewing Company in Middletown is one of the winners of this round of EDGE grants

Ten young businesses are receiving state funds to improve their chances of long-term success. 

 

The state announced winners of its second round of Encouraging Development, Growth & Expansion (EDGE) grants Thursday. 

The program awards grants of up to $100,000 to five science and technology companies and up to $50,000 to five others chosen by a panel of experts. Eligible businesses must be less than five years old and employ fewer than ten people. The grants can go to things such as essential equipment, website design, or market analysis assistance. 

Volunteer Brewing Company in Middletown is among the winners. The business plans to use the funding to buy new brewing equipment as the business expands into the building next door. 

“It’s huge,” said owner Kevin Schatz. “Not just in our business— take some of the financial burden off— but it really is an investment in community too. So the state is really investing in downtown Middletown. As we grow we’re pulling in other local people, people from other areas who come downtown who can then stay downtown and shop.”

 

Veramorph Materials is a winner in the STEM category. The company based in the Delaware Innovation Space at the DuPont Experimental Station designs hydrogel tablets to improve oral delivery of pharmaceuticals.

“The money is going to go primarily to doing toxicology studies to prove the safety and the effectiveness of our hydrogels,” said CEO Doug Godfrin.

 

Godfrin calls the EDGE grant an “amazingly huge deal.” “It’s always a trade-off as to how much ownership of a company you give up while raising the funds necessary to get your feet on the ground,” he said. 

Division of Small Business Director Damian DeStefano notes the winners span a variety of industries. “We’ve got a bakery, we’ve got a local brewery, we’ve got some folks who are trying to do interesting things in retail again. We have someone who’s building an app so that they can do music coaching across the country right out of Delaware.”

DeStefano says the goal of the program is to make sure the state is doing what it can to support the work of local entrepreneurs. “We don’t want any good idea to fail to succeed because it didn’t have the resources it needed to get a fair shot,” he said. 

The Division plans to hold two rounds of EDGE grant competitions this year. Applications for the spring round are open through the end of February.

 

Sophia Schmidt is a Delaware native. She comes to Delaware Public Media from NPR’s Weekend Edition in Washington, DC, where she produced arts, politics, science and culture interviews. She previously wrote about education and environment for The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, MA. She graduated from Williams College, where she studied environmental policy and biology, and covered environmental events and local renewable energy for the college paper.
Related Content