Arch Grants raises $21.5 million to boost funding of St. Louis startups

Arch Grants has raised $21.5 million in gifts and commitments to advance its mission of attracting startups and jobs to the St. Louis area.

The organization offers $50,000 in competitive, non-dilutive grant funding, plus other resources, to startups based in or willing to relocate to St. Louis. It announced the fundraising haul on Thursday.

Arch Grants said that about $600,000 of the funds raised will go toward its Global Startup Competition in 2021, according to a press release. Another $400,000 will support its new Growth Grants program, which will provide up to $100,000 to past Arch Grants recipients that need capital to grow.

The organization typically doles out $1 million in non-equity funding to startups through its annual grant competition. The new capital will enable the organization to increase that by more than 50%, to at least $1.55 million, according to the release.

Since its first cohort in 2012, the organization has given $9 million in grants to 173 companies, according to the release, and those companies have generated $400 billion in revenue and created more than 2,000 jobs in the state.

Arch Grants Executive Director Emily Lohse-Busch said the capital campaign would help the organization attract founders to foster a “vibrant community and thriving economy” in St. Louis.

“This is a unique moment for St. Louis to scale an inclusive, robust ecosystem,” Emily Lohse-Busch said in the release, “and Arch Grants’ Sustained Impact Campaign will go a long way toward making that a reality.”