LockerDome is now Decide:
https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/inn ... Nz4B6oI3RM
https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/inn ... Nz4B6oI3RM
1. St. Louis, Missouri
The Gateway to the West is home to diverse business owners across industries like real estate, tech, fashion, food service, retail, and more.
St. Louis has one of the highest rankings on our parity index, meaning that the city’s minority population is proportionally represented in business ownership. Though minority groups only make up 26.3% of the city’s population, 25% of startups are minority-owned.
Programs such as the St. Louis Diverse Business Accelerator help ethnically and racially diverse business owners in the Greater St. Louis area grow their business and succeed.
St. Louis quick stats
Percentage of startups that are minority-owned: 25.03%
Annual sales at minority-owned startups: $193,558,000
Total number of minority-owned startups: 2,279
The opportunity for a new cash infusion comes as some of Missouri's early investments are paying off. Benson Hill, an agricultural technology firm, was lured here from North Carolina in 2013 by MTC and other investors. It went public last year and employs more than 350 people.
A 2011 MTC investment helped keep Confluence Life Sciences, founded by former Pfizer researchers, in town. It's now part of a billion-dollar company called Aclaris Therapeutics.
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A recent MTC strategy report, though, mentions concern that Missouri “is beginning to lose the deal flow and investment momentum it has built.” TechStars, an international accelerator fund, pulled out of Kansas City in December after an eight-year run.
The budget now heads to the Governor’s desk for approval.
MIT’s Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program will focus on growing St. Louis’ bioscience and geospatial sectors. It will include representatives from Greater St. Louis Inc., BioSTL, GeoFutures, Cortex, Danforth Plant Science Center and Pluton Biosciences Inc.
The James S. McDonnell Foundation, founded by “Mr. Mac” in 1950, has spent several decades funding research in human cognition and complex systems.
The foundation's board, made up of two sons and seven grandchildren of the founder, has decided to change direction. Instead of funding academic science around the world, its future grants will focus squarely on St. Louis. It will support regional causes including economic mobility, workforce development, science and math education and the life sciences.
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“St. Louis is where we're from and where we grew up,” Alicia McDonnell said. “St. Louis is where my grandfather chose to come and build his company. We're very emotionally attached to it and proud of it.” The foundation has $590 million in assets, according to its 2019 tax return, and it gives away about $20 million a year. Jason Hall, chief executive of business and civic group Greater St. Louis Inc., said the move fills a gap left when another prominent family, the Danforths, wound down their foundation more than a decade ago. Besides launching the Danforth Plant Science Center, the Danforth Foundation backed Great Rivers Greenway and a host of other civic initiatives.
“This is massive,” Hall said of the McDonnells' decision. “You have to do a lot of things right to grow as a region. You have to have a strategy, a structure and you need civic capital to seed worthwhile projects.”
Current construction progress:sc4mayor wrote: ↑Jul 29, 2021Drug maker seeks subsidy for $86M expansion
https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... 0#cxrecs_s
Roughly 170 new jobs.Patheon Biologic LLC is seeking St. Louis County subsidies for the project, which would be adjacent to its existing facility at 4766 LaGuardia Drive. Government documents say the new, 58,000-square-foot expansion includes two manufacturing suites, to be built over two years, that "will manufacture life changing and saving biologic drug substance products that treat a variety of cancers, arthritis, Hemophilia and Crohn's disease." Patheon currently has 669 employees at its facility, the documents say.
St. Louis County, through its County Council, is contemplating authorizing the issuance of up to $85 million in bonds for the project, plus approval of real and property tax abatement at a rate of 50% over 10 years. A sales tax exemption on construction materials is also being contemplated. Documents from the organization called the project "competitive" with other company locations.

