The Delaware Division of Small Business (DSB) has announced that this year’s EDGE 2.0 Finalist Competition is open to the public. The pitches are planned for Thursday April 30 and Friday May 1 from 9 AM to 1 PM at Delaware Technical and Community College’s Del-One Conference Center.
“EDGE 2.0 is about opening doors for Delaware Entrepreneurs and giving them a platform to take strong ideas and bring them to life,” DSB Deputy Director Jaimie Watts said. “This group of finalists reflects the creativity, determination, and innovation we see across our small business community, and we’re excited to watch them take the next step in their journey.”
This year, there are nine Entrepreneur finalists in the competition. The finalists include 3 E’s Equestrian Education Program, Expanding Ideas Inc., Fin Outdoor Recreation LLC, Huxley & Hiro, Little Town LLC, Mother Nurture Composting Services, SOMA Skin & Sculpt, Solid Earth Studio LLC and Rooted Properties Group.
In the STEM competition, there are eight finalists, including Able Sciences, Bison Venture Partners/NGARI, Dunya Analytics, Gida Health LLC, Housecall VR Inc., NeuroSync, Trial IQ Technologies, Zephyr Materials Inc.
The finalists were chosen from 123 applications submitted this year. This is the 13th EDGE grant offering since the program was launched.
All applicants undergo several rounds of internal reviews by DSB Business Finance Unit staff and leadership before finalists are selected. During this final round, they will be judged by an independent panel of expert judges. The Entrepreneur category will be judged on April 30 and the STEM category on May 1.
EDGE 2.0 is an updated version of the original program which launched in 2019. A total of $1.15 million in funding awards is available. There are no pre-determined number of winners and no set award amounts. All awardees will be funded based on the strength of their pitch and proposal, not their funding request. Entrepreneur finalists will compete for a share of $400,000 while STEM-based companies could receive funding from a $750,000 pool. The funding can be used to support expenses such as equipment purchases, marketing, infrastructure improvements and technology upgrades.
All finalists will also receive post-pitch in-kind services and/or award supports to help them grow. These supports will include memberships to networking organizations and expedited pathways to DSB funding programs and more.
EDGE stands for Encouraging Development, Growth and Expansion. It is the Delaware Division of Small Business’ flagship funding program, which has distributed nearly $9.1 million to 127 small businesses in the last six years. Businesses eligible for the program are those in existence for less than seven years, including startups not yet in the marketplace, having 15 or fewer employees, and fewer than $700,000 in assets. Additionally, businesses must be majority located in Delaware.
There is no charge to attend the pitch competition, but registration is required. Anyone interested in attending can register online.
