Delaware’s EDGE Grant, a new offering for young companies from the Delaware Division of Small Businesses (DDSB), is in the final stage of selection for grantees out of the pool of applicants who submitted in June. That’s according to Linda Farquhar, CEO of entreDonovan Wholesale, who has announced that the startup has been selected as a finalist, eligible for one of five Entrepreneur Class grants of $50,000.
entreDonovan, an upscale custom women’s clothing brand and boutique based in downtown Wilmington, was founded by Farquhar in 2011; the new venture up for the EDGE grant is a wholesale company formed in 2018 that uses a high-tech system for creating custom patterns using an infrared body scanner, Xbox Kinect technology and and proprietary processes developed by Farquhar and business partner Fangfang Zhang, Ph.D.
With the wholesale model, retailers across the country, from department stores to tiny shops, can sell entreDonovan’s custom fashions to their own customers, complete with on-site body scanning.
“We’re super excited to be named a finalist,” said Farquhar. “Winning the grant would help us finalize a proprietary ordering system, automate more of our production processes, and invest in marketing to let brick-and-mortar retailers know how we can help them.”
“This is some really great news after a long stretch of hard work on our processes,” Zhang added.
The state will match $3 for per $1 (including non-government grant funding) spent by the selected small businesses that do a minimum of 51% of their business in Delaware, up to $50,000 for Entrepreneur Class and $100,000 for STEM startups. Ten grants may be awarded per application round. To apply for the next round, keep an eye on the DDSB website.
Here’s the full list of finalists, per DDSB comms director Michael Chesney:
STEM Class
- Avkin
- STRIDE
- Ezy Venture
- Napigen
- Fur Baby Tracker
- PTHERA
- Lyapunov Tech
- W7
Entrepreneur Class
- Beach Brew Bus
- Impact Graphix
- BBD
- entreDonovan
- Qua Marketing
- Volunteer Brewing
- Grey Fox
- Tomeka’s
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