WILMINGTON — Small business owners were celebrated Wednesday afternoon in a moment that would be a last for Governor John Carney in his top-of-the-state leadership role.
Launched by Carney in 2019, the biannual Encouraging, Development, Growth and Expansion (EDGE) program honors smaller businesses as they work through the process of growth in Delaware. Applicants must be less than seven years old and employ no more than 10 full-time employees. This round, 15 finalists gave pitches promoting their businesses to a judging panel and ten businesses from across the state were honored and awarded funds to benefit their growth efforts.
“We know that it’s really [the] small businesses that drive job creation and business development. I was worried that if we created the DPP [Delaware Prosperity Partnership] that somehow small business would be brushed aside, but just the opposite happened because we created the Division of Small Business,” Carney told a crowd during the award ceremony held inside The Mill. “We got a private partnership and we got a more focused approach to small business support and this program I think is one of the best one in helping small businesses.”
More than 110 companies have been supported through the EDGE grant which has ultimately awarded more than $7 million over roughly 6 years, according to Deputy Secretary of State Kristopher Knight.
“That’s a lot,” he said. Knight added that 220,000 jobs come from small businesses and Delaware itself can lay claim to 28,000 small businesses around the state. “We talk about the heart of Delaware, the heart of the Delaware economy – it absolutely is small businesses.”
Knight also said seeing the variety of businesses in the list of awardees and knowing the risks they likely had to take while starting in the first place was inspiring. Awardees for this round included restaurants, a beauty-based business, a clothing manufacturer and several STEM-related or biotech startups.
“The ability of Delawareans to realize the potential of their business ideas shouldn’t be limited by their financial resources,” Secretary of State Jeff Bullock said in a press release from the Division of Small Business. “Small businesses create economic diversity in our state by helping create new industries and markets, and the great thing about the EDGE grant program is its flexibility. These grants can support just about any business-related expense. It has been rewarding to see the positive impact on the state’s economy coming from hardworking business owners across Delaware, including the ones who have and will continue to receive these grants.”
Those grants offer up to $50,000 of support for businesses in the entrepreneur class, while STEM businesses can receive up to $100,000 for their awards.
For Andrea Hess, co-founder of Oceeto in Newark along with her husband Austin Hess, the $50,000 award means their business can now move forward from 25 protype garments to a larger manufacturing process for the newly patented Care’digan. Hess said the design offers a stylish way for parents to get around while working to hide stains and other sticky parenting situations.
“This funding means we can go to manufacturing, we can make more than just 25 and really work to support the caregivers that are spending so much time with their littles, but still want to be themselves,” Hess told the Delaware Business Times. “We are so grateful for this opportunity to grow.”
Other awardees in the entrepreneur category, all earning $50,000, include:
- For Looks Studio founded by Hailey Sullenberger in 2019 in Smyrna,
- Veteran and woman-owned Good Company Handyman in Kent County,
- Oath 84, a premier, casual dining Indo-Trini and American cuisine restaurant in Wilmington
- Trash Porters, a full-service waste management company in Wilmington.
STEM awardees include:
- Lisen Imprinting Diagnostics, Inc. (LisenID), a biotechnology startup founded in 2017, won $100,000
- Natural Sweeteners in Newark, which has a new natural product called Super Sweet, won $100,000
- Nitro Biosciences in Newark and Wilmington, dedicated to generating a vaccine platform to protect against diseases with unmet public health needs, won $90,665.79
- Otter Biotech, a startup dedicated to developing antibodies for disease, won $100,000
- Rebisken in Dover won $100,000 to support its business dedicated to regulating carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions
“For us, getting our business out in front of larger food manufacturers will be critical and its cost prohibitive because some of these conventions we need to attend costs thousands of dollars. So this funding will allow us to grow and market in a way that will support our business for years to come,” Kasia Biggin of Natural Sweeteners told DBT.
Graeme Biggin added, “Delaware really has such a great atmosphere for small business growth and we’re so glad to be here developing our own business with the help of the EDGE grant.”
