Main Street Ventures said nine companies have received funding for their projects through its most recent round of grants, totaling $200,000.
The projects funded range from expanding to new markets, adding product lines and building emerging tech.
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 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 funding to scale their community impact and increase the odds of survival.
“We are excited to cap off an amazing year by supporting nine small businesses in Q4,” said Brianna Dzuricsko, Main Street Ventures’ executive lead. “This year, in total, we were able to distribute over $1 million in equity-free funding to small businesses in our region. The influx of new ideas that we have seen continues to showcase that the Cincinnati region is an amazing place to build companies.”
The nine investees are:
- Beeyond bars are a filling, 5-ingredient power snack that give you a simple yet powerful kind of energy to keep you going.
- Cackleberry is a food trailer that pops up in various locations throughout the Cincinnati area serving up craft breakfast sandwiches.
- Down the Road Spice Co. is on a mission to change the way Indian food is cooked and experienced in the U.S. by making it simpler, more delicious and more accessible to the home chef with our line of small-batch, organic masalas that make it easy to cook Indian food in under 30 minutes with virtually no prep.
- London’s Hair Food is a handcrafted hair care line that focuses on embracing the beauty of textured hair with ingredients tresses love and make you feel like royalty.
- Oopda is a healthcare bill management solution that will simplify the payment experience for the patient.
- SKT Ceramics is a porcelain pottery studio that supports a team of local artists who meticulously hand-craft tableware that is dipped in luminous glazes and adorned with original illustrations that bring joy to the everyday table.
- That’s So Sweet will take the place of the need to home bake those fun and tastefully sweet gifts needed for holidays, birthdays, new neighbors, new babies, graduations, showers, retirement parties and more.
- Tutor Teens is a community-based, technology-centered, peer-tutoring solution focused on strengthening student connection, collaboration and confidence.
- Wildweed is a full service top tier restaurant with a seasonally inspired menu and heavy focus on handmade pasta.
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 and when they need it: capital, connections and education.
It looks 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.