WILMINGTON— Matt Meyer intends to be the governor for entrepreneurs and small businesses, and that means expanding a popular state grant program intended just for them.
The Delaware EDGE Grant program, which Meyer has allocated $3 million for in his inaugural budget, has funded dozens of fledgling companies in their first years of business. In fact, since the program first opened in 2019, the state has awarded $7.25 million to 110 businesses.
The governor has doubled the amount typically set aside for EDGE Grants in hopes to expand what it offers to start-ups in the state, including a bigger grant, mentorship, access to talent or possibly space to work.
“Years ago, I woke up as a guy starting a sandal company on a Thursday and on Friday, I knew I was 36 hours from not making payroll and I had to figure it out,” Meyer said at a press conference on April 24. “I was on my own then. My hope is that here in Delaware, you know you have a supportive community.”
For weeks, the Delaware Division of Small Business, with its new director CJ Bell at the helm, has been assessing improvements and adding features to the popular program. But those changes are likely to come in the fall when the EDGE program starts a new cycle.
The Division of Small Business is preparing to announce the 10 awardees out of 139 applicants for the May cycle in the coming days. This is the most applications the program has received, which means each entrepreneur has a less than 20% chance of receiving a grant of $50,000 to $100,000.
Improvements to the EDGE Grant program could range from the application process itself to after the grant is awarded.
“There’s other metrics that we need to highlight in terms of showing the impact that’s not just staying in business,” Bell told the Delaware Business Times, acknowledging that 95% of past EDGE grant recipients are still in business today.
To qualify for an EDGE Grant, the company must be in Delaware or planning to move much of its operations here, and must be in business for less than seven years, have 10 employees or less and net assets less than $500,000.
Bell said that he’s had conversations with entrepreneurs that just missed the cut off, while being mindful of what the $3 million proposed would be able to pay out.
“I don’t want to see a business that’s eight years old miss out because of that. I do understand why there are these requirements, but it’s something that we’re looking at whether we’re missing some companies on the verge of scaling,” he said. “I’ve seen it time and time again when a company leaves for a better funding environment.”
The EDGE Grant is a competitive program, where the Division of Small Business finance team holds four rounds of applicant reviews to cut down to the finalist state. From there, state leadership weighs in before the pitch round happens before a panel of judges.
To build a better entrepreneur environment with partnerships, Bell said that he also wants to consider applicants who may not have made it to the final pitch and the 5% of EDGE Grant recipients whose businesses did not survive. That could mean starting a peer mentorship group of former EDGE recipients or a quarterly network event, as well as leveraging existing resources across state and county governments.
“It’s not just us providing the funding but also learning from your peers. That’s probably the best way to learn, from people who have been in your situation and have overcome a few obstacles,” Bell said. “I think adding a component that has some sort of networking is something that we’re missing for EDGE 2.0.”
Right now, Bell declined to elaborate on how the $3 million proposed by Meyer would be used across larger or more grants or use the funding for wraparound services to best maximize returns for the EDGE program. But the Fall 2025 round will have many of the new changes made by the Meyer administration.
“During my time at New Castle County, we’ve been doing good at things that don’t increase the taxpayer’s burden. I’m hopeful we can continue our success and build partnerships that don’t come at a cost while increasing businesses’ chances to thrive,” he said.
