Davis Roots Business Incubator has announced the start of its new program to award financial grants to eligible companies that apply and are entered into the program. The grant awards, similar to those offered by other top-notch incubators around the country, provide seed capital that companies can use during very early development stages.
Funding for these grants is made possible by generous donations from Davis Roots corporate sponsors, including Capital Corridor Ventures, DLA Piper and Five Star Bank as well as various individual donors who recognize the importance of early stage funding for a small company.
“This is a new and critical piece of the lifecycle for a start-up company” said Joe DiNunzio, Co-Founder and Director at Davis Roots. “We already provide space, mentoring and early stage strategic direction for our start-ups in Davis but, without access to seed money for operations and product development, it’s still very challenging for them reach the point where other investors take a significant interest in providing additional rounds of funding”. The Davis Roots application process will continue with open enrollment as it has for the last 2 years
“We are not going to dismiss any viable project out-of-hand”, explains Scott Ragsdale, Davis Roots General Manager. “If you look at the active companies who are currently in the program, you can get a sense of what we are looking for.”
Current Davis Roots companies include: Barobo– an educational robotics company, The Gift of Education– a financial gifting service, Sonanutech– a bacteriophage assay product, Foodful.ly– consumer food use software and hardware developers, Fishrock Laboratories– producers of natural skin and eye nutritional supplements, Nuritas– developrs of peptide analysis for food development and Zebra Code, a platform for full stack web development instruction.
For more information about the grant program, the application process, or Davis Roots, visit davisroots.org
Davis Roots is a non-profit startup business incubator that is sponsored by the City of Davis, the legal firm DLA Piper and Five Star Bank. Davis Roots was founded to provide direct support for entrepreneurs to locate and grow in Davis California. Emerging ventures (typically 1-3 founders) apply for and are selected into the Davis Roots Business Incubator program where they gain access to office space, mentors, network access and administrational stewardship. In return, the companies provide a small amount of equity to Davis Roots. Most information about applying can be found at the davisroots.org website. Further questions can be sent to info@davisroots.org.
