Startups

Wilmington smart fashion startup edging toward $50K grant

The wholesale spinoff of downtown boutique entreDonovan is an EDGE Grant finalist.

entreDonovan designs. (Courtesy photo)

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
Update: The full list of EDGE Grant finalists has been added. (8/9/19, 12:40 p.m.)

Before you go...

Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.

3 ways to support our work:
  • Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
  • Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
  • Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
The journalism fund Preferred partners Our services
Engagement

Join our growing Slack community

Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!

Trending

Hispanic tech workers more than double representation in key US cities

This Week in Jobs: Unfreeze your career with these 30 open roles

Ready to vote (again), Delaware? Meet your 2024 Technical.ly Award nominees

As the nation shifts right, Delaware makes history with pathbreaking Congressional winners

Technically Media