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Arch Grants Awards $1.6 Million to 19 Startups and Welcomes Three New Fellows, Expanding Its Mission to Fuel St. Louis’ Future Through Entrepreneurship
Powered By Local Philanthropy, Arch Grants’ Newest Startups Are Set to Make an Impact on St. Louis’ Business Landscape
ST. LOUIS, MO – Arch Grants has awarded $1.6 million in non-dilutive grants to 19 innovative startups and welcomed three new Fellows into its expanding peer leadership network, underscoring the nonprofit’s growing role as a cornerstone of St. Louis’ innovation economy. Selected from hundreds of applicants to Arch Grants’ annual Startup Competition, the 2025 Cohort companies and Fellows collectively reflect the organization’s mission to build a more vibrant and resilient future for the region through entrepreneurship.
Each company will receive $75,000 in non-dilutive grants, and awardees selected from outside Missouri will receive an additional $25,000 in grants to facilitate their relocation to St. Louis – a key requirement of the program. The 2025 Cohort includes companies relocating to Missouri from California, Idaho, Indiana and New York in addition to international transplants from Amsterdam, Netherlands and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“Entrepreneurship is the engine of growth that runs on innovation, community, and shared purpose,” said Gabe Angieri, Executive Director of Arch Grants. “These founders are additive to our momentum building an inclusive, resilient, and forward-looking St. Louis.”
Earlier this week, Arch Grants celebrated the ribbon cutting of its newly expanded headquarters in downtown St. Louis, a collaborative space designed to give Arch Grants founders a dedicated place to work, innovate, and connect with one another and with community partners. The organization also announced the official launch of a new lending program, in partnership with the James S. McDonnell Foundation and St. Louis Community Credit Union, which will expand access to capital for Arch Grants founders from historically marginalized backgrounds and those operating in underserved areas of St. Louis City and North County.
More than 74% of this year’s awarded companies are led or co-led by women, people of color, or immigrants, advancing Arch Grants’ mission to build an entrepreneurial economy representative of the broader St. Louis region.
“Arch Grants continues to show that inclusion and innovation thrive together,” said Zundra Bryant, Board President of Arch Grants. “When visionary entrepreneurs find support, capital, and connection in St. Louis, extraordinary things happen, for their businesses and for our region.”
Since its founding in 2012, Arch Grants has awarded over $20 million in non-dilutive funding. In turn, its portfolio companies have created over 4,000 jobs, paid out over $239 million in local wages, attracted over $870 million in follow-on capital and generated over $1.3 billion in revenue.
While the Startup Competition remains central to Arch Grants’ mission, the organization’s impact now extends far beyond competitive grantmaking. Arch Grants is building a regional innovation infrastructure, connecting entrepreneurs to capital, talent, partners, and new markets. The organization continues to focus its investing in sectors where St. Louis has strengths and established industry clusters.
The Arch Grants Fellows Program, launched in 2023, exemplifies that expanded mission. It brings later-stage founders, including past-funded awardees, into the organization’s resource network, and engages them to serve as mentors, collaborators, and ambassadors for St. Louis’ innovation economy. Together with each new startup cohort, the Fellows form a dynamic continuum of support, from idea to scale, that strengthens the ecosystem’s long-term sustainability.
Unlike traditional venture capital or government-backed programs, Arch Grants is entirely donor-powered, allowing founders to retain full ownership of their companies while gaining access to capital, mentorship, and a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem.
“Philanthropy is the fuel that powers our work,” said Angieri. “Every dollar invested in Arch Grants generates measurable local impact – new jobs, local wages, and a stronger innovation economy for St. Louis. The individuals, foundations, and corporations that donate to Arch Grants make all our work possible.”
Arch Grants will celebrate the 2025 Cohort and Fellows at its annual neXus Gala on Thursday, October 17, at St. Louis Union Station—a night that brings together entrepreneurs, civic leaders, and business champions to spotlight the region’s innovation economy. During the event, Alaina Maciá, CEO of MTM Health, will be honored with the 2025 Entrepreneur Award for her leadership and impact.
Meet the 2025 Arch Grants Cohort, an exciting array of 19 companies whose innovative products and services will generate in-demand jobs and stimulate growth across St. Louis’ key economic sectors:
•Alfa-Ruby provides an unmatched plant protein that performs like animal protein with a significant cost advantage, plus added benefits of high sustainability and no allergenicity. Alfa-Ruby’s flagship RuBisCO Protein Isolate is derived from fresh-harvested alfalfa.
Company Leadership: Chris Pratt, Founder and President
Origin: Aberdeen, ID
•Archetype is a smart platform that simplifies the way designers and developers plan, visualize, and furnish spaces. It replaces slow, fragmented workflows with fast, intelligent curation and procurement.
Company Leadership: Sarah Mirth, Co-Founder and CEO; Dan Mirth, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer
Origin: St. Louis, MO
•BARE Zero Proof Spirits Inc is pioneering the U.S. non-alcoholic spirits category. The award-winning zero-proof spirits are crafted for people who choose to socialize without alcohol—offering full-flavored, authentic cocktail experiences – zero proof.
Company Leadership: James Kempland, Co-Founder and CEO; Sam Newberg, Co-Founder and CTO
Origin: St. Louis, MO
•ChiChi is on a mission to revolutionize breakfast with chickpeas, bringing real protein, fiber and satisfying texture to your morning.
Company Leadership: Chiara Munzi, Co-Founder; Izzy Gorton, Co-Founder
Origin: San Francisco, CA
•Ctrl Shift is building a one-of-a-kind video game where players are humanitarians on and off the screen. As they interact with immersive worlds and complete missions, players generate valuable geospatial insights that support humanitarian partners in the real world.
Company Leadership: Rhiannan Price, Co-Founder; Io Blair, Co-Founder
Origin: St. Louis, MO
Powered by Kemper Geospatial Funding Initiative
•Culture & Co. is the maker of Original Better, the only true 1:1 plant-based butter crafted specifically for professional kitchens. Already loved and trusted by European Michelin-starred chefs, we make butter, but better.
Company Leadership: Louise Huterstein-Olofsson, Founder
Origin: Amsterdam, Netherlands
•Decodable Reads is an AI-enhanced platform that transforms how organizations and schools implement the Science of Reading by generating personalized, skill-targeted reading materials and lesson plans for students building foundational reading skills. We make evidence-based reading instruction more engaging for students and more efficient for busy educators.
Company Leadership: Paul Heinemann, Co-Founder; Joe de Lorimier, Co-Founder
Origin: Indianapolis, IN
#STLOnward Award – Powered by NISA Charitable Fund
•Digitizer AI is revolutionizing the industrial embroidery industry—the same industry responsible for stitching logos onto baseball caps, polos, and countless other items. Behind every embroidered design is a specialized machine file, but creating that file is a manual process that can take days, creating major bottlenecks. Digitizer AI uses artificial intelligence to automate this process, revolutionizing the industry.
Company Leadership: John Pa, Co-Founder
Origin: St. Louis, MO
•Everywhere® is powering enterprise circularity starting in the combined $3T textile and building materials industries. We are transforming textile, plastic and agricultural waste into immediately scalable, cost-competitive, carbon-negative solutions for companies like Rivian, Coach and Chanel.
Company Leadership: Maxwell Citron, Co-Founder and CEO; Irys Kornbluth, Co-Founder and COO
Origin: St. Louis, MO
•GenAssist develops a patented biomaterial that enables the body to regrow functional muscle after it has been damaged or destroyed. The technology turns injuries once thought permanent into recoverable conditions.
Company Leadership: Joe Beggs, Co-Founder and CEO; Gabe Haas, Co-Founder and CTO
Origin: St. Louis, MO
•Jet.Build is a modern development and construction management platform designed to unify developers, contractors, and project teams on a single, intuitive system. By streamlining workflows, communication, data, and project visibility, Jet.Build helps teams deliver projects faster and more efficiently.
Company Leadership: Adam Stark, Founder
Origin: St. Louis, MO
#STLOnward Award – Powered by NISA Charitable Fund
•LÆRO‘s flagship product, Cycleau, offers a compact water reuse system designed to retrofit below sinks and showers to recycle greywater to potable standards, helping property owners save up to 60% on water utilities daily.
Company Leadership: Noemi Florea, Founder and CEO
Origin: Brooklyn, NY
•NanoJump Bio develops portable devices that enable on-site DNA and RNA extraction from any sample. NanoJump Bio’s technology makes genetic analysis faster, easier, and accessible anywhere.
Company Leadership: Julieta Celeste Imperiale, PhD, Founder
Origin: Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
•nCase Technologies designs discreet, durable, and convenient carrying cases for lifesaving emergency medicines. nCase’s flagship product, NALOX-1, is an innovative keychain case for naloxone (NARCAN) that’s proven to boost carriage rates and overdose-response readiness.
Company Leadership: Matthew Bitner-Glindzicz, Co-Founder; Danielle Wilder, Co-Founder
Origin: St. Louis, MO
•Petabolix uses advanced technology to deliver precise pet food recommendations tailored to each animal’s unique nutritional needs by collecting pet data, generating a personalized nutritional assessment, and analyzing thousands of diets in its industry-leading database to identify the proper options.
Company Leadership: Blake Wayman, Co-Founder and CEO; Sam Spencer, Co-Founder and CTO
Origin: St. Louis, MO
•Remvia is a soft-tissue-based device that treats nocturnal bruxism—nighttime clenching and grinding—by disrupting the cycle that drives it. Unlike traditional guards, Remvia helps reduce the behavior itself through a novel, non-tooth-based design.
Company Leadership: Andrea Morris, DDS, Co-Founder; Nephi Zufelt, Co-Founder
Origin: St. Louis, MO
•Show Me The World Coffee is a mission-driven specialty coffee and tea company where every purchase fuels transformative educational opportunities for youth from under-resourced communities. Through our virtual fundraising platform, retail partnerships, and event presence, Show Me the World Coffee is creating purpose-driven growth one cup at a time.
Company Leadership: Sylvester Chisom, Co-Founder and CEO; Samantha Lurie Carroll, Co-Founder
Origin: St. Louis, MO
Donald M. Suggs Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award Powered by the Ferring Family Foundation (F3)
•The Peer Network is a digital front door to mental health and recovery, a telehealth platform where anyone can connect with a certified peer. The Peer Network reimagines support as simple, human, and stigma-free.
Company Leadership: Kurt Schmidt, Co-Founder and CEO; Steven Peterson, Co-Founder and CTO
Origin: St. Louis, MO
•Zaiko is a customer engagement platform that helps independent restaurants, retailers and service businesses bring in repeat customers and increase their sales through effective outreach programs that actually get customers to respond.
Company Leadership: Franklin Taylor, Co-Founder and CEO; Jason Ti, Co-Founder and CTO
Origin: St. Louis, MO
#STLOnward Award – Powered by NISA Charitable Fund
Arch Grants also welcomed three new companies into its Fellows Program, the peer advisory and leadership support collective founded in 2023 to accelerate ideation, growth, and making connections in St. Louis. Each of these three fast-growing, later-stage companies and their dynamic Founders will join Arch Grants’ portfolio of supported startups.
Meet the newest members of the Arch Grants Fellows Program:
•Dad’s Cookie Co. spreads happiness, one delicious cookie at a time. Dad’s Cookies deliver an excellent value and experience to customers through efficient manufacturing, tech-enabled distribution, and story-driven retailing.
Company leadership: Chad Huber, President and Co-Founder
•Saluna unites a group of experienced agricultural researchers and entrepreneurs who passionately believe that Midwestern growers need more planting choices than they currently have. Saluna is applying modern technology to a legacy crop; their Industrial Hemp applies modern innovation and reliability. Saluna works with farmers for a better ROI for oil seed crops, an improved nutritional profile for the end user, and better soil health.
Company leadership: Matt Plummer, Co-Founder and CEO, Mike Gerau, Co-Founder and CTO
•Trestle is building AI-powered infrastructure for heavy construction procurement, starting with vendor risk management, expanding into full-stack bidding, and contract creation. Trestle helps general contractors and project owners with the best subcontractors and suppliers on every project.
Company leadership: Victor Zhang, CEO
About Arch Grants
Arch Grants is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that catalyzes economic development through innovation and entrepreneurship. Since 2012, Arch Grants-backed startups have generated over $1.3 billion in revenue, raised more than $870 million in follow-on capital, created over 4,000 jobs, and paid more than $239 million in wages in the St. Louis region. By investing in bold founders and their companies, Arch Grants strengthens the St. Louis economy and serves as a national model for inclusive, innovation-led growth.
