The Douglas C. Greene Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Southeast Missouri State University announces the third annual Southeast Startup Pitch Competition will take place on May 1. The Startup Pitch Competition gives current full-time undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to develop real-world skills for an innovative new business idea. The incentive is a cash prize [...]
Student entrepreneurs in the University of Missouri System could earn up to $30,000 in prize money thanks to a new systemwide initiative known as the Entrepreneur Quest Student Accelerator. The program, which UM System President Mun Choi announced Friday in his State of the University Address from Columbia, involves the University of Missouri–St. Louis and the system’s other three campuses. [...]
Chris Harbert didn’t expect to choke up during his business pitch at the Missouri Tech Challenge on Wednesday night at the Blue Note. In August, Harbert turned down a six-figure income at a Fortune 1000 company to focus on his business, Testery. Testery supports companies in running their own testing on web-based applications at an [...]
Gov. Eric Greitens wants Missouri to support entrepreneurs on a much larger scale than it ever has, but he doesn’t want bureaucrats picking winners and losers. His solution is something he’s calling a Missouri innovation fund, which would be launched with borrowed money and turned over to private fund managers. The money would flow through [...]
The St. Louis Regional Chamber is partnering with local venture capital firms and banks to offer $5 million in seed capital for startups to spur economic development. Joe Reagan, the chamber’s president and CEO, announced the new Spirit of St. Louis Fund I at the chamber’s annual event Thursday night at Chaifetz Arena. Reagan said [...]
Firebrand Ventures has partnered with the University of Missouri-Kansas City to help local startup entrepreneurs. As part of the agreement, the Kansas City-based fund will offer graduates of UMKC’s E-Scholars program an opportunity to receive an investment from Firebrand starting in 2017. Housed under UMKC’s Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (RIEI), E-Scholars offers students [...]
When RiverVest Venture Partners opened its doors in 2000, hopes were high that it would be an important funding source for St. Louis’ nascent biotechnology industry. RiverVest went on to be a highly successful venture capital firm, managing $290 million and demonstrating a knack for identifying health care startups that would later go public or [...]
The Peoria-based health system is the parent of Rockford's OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center. In February, the health system activated OSF Ventures, a $75 million fund that invests in companies intent on developing medical technologies and applications to improve patient outcomes or reduce health care costs. Pulse Therapeutics, the St. Louis company, has developed a [...]
The University of Missouri System wants to invest in entrepreneurs and startups, and it wants to cultivate that venture capital in Missouri. On Thursday, the UM System Board of Curators voted to allocate money from the university’s general pool — with a $5 million cap — to the Accelerator Fund, run by the Missouri Innovation Center [...]
Angel investors come from all backgrounds and industries, but Kansas City-based Knoda today announced it has received a $50,000 investment from a less likely angel group: students. […]