Grow-NY Program Offers Opportunity to Fund Innovative Food-Based Businesses
If you have an idea for a food, beverage, or agriculture business, the Grow-NY business competition may provide an opportunity to get significant funding and mentorship.
Applications for this highly competitive program closes June 15 but the program offers significant monetary prizes to winners annually: Four $250,000 prizes, two $500,000 prizes, and a $1 million grand prize.
20 finalists will be selected and supported through a business development phase; and the competition culminates at the Grow-NY Summit in Binghamton, NY this November where seven winners will be announced.
Last year two local business were selected from the Rochester, NY area.
A start-up company, Sweet Pea, located at 777 Culver Road in Rochester, won $250,000. The 'plant-based kitchen' provides healthy alternative meals for pick-up or delivery.
Craft Cannery, a manufacturing company in Bergen won $500,000. The company helps people take their sauces, dressings and marinades from their kitchen to the shelves of grocery stores, restaurants, farmers markets and beyond.
“The fifth round of the Grow-NY agribusiness accelerator will help to build on the incredible success of earlier competition winners whose entrepreneurial ideas are fueling economic growth Upstate," noted Hope Knight, Empire State Development President, CEO & Commissioner. "These innovative companies have attracted significant investment throughout the Grow-NY region and around the world, and I can’t wait to see what the next crop of selected, forward-thinking entrepreneurs will bring to the table."
Empire State Development oversees the program—which connects innovators and investors—funded through Upstate Revitalization Initiatives – Finger Lakes Forward, CNY Rising and Southern Tier Soaring.
To get more information or to apply visit https://www.grow-ny.com/.
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