ST. LOUIS — The Missouri maker behind a keychain designed to save lives from opioid overdoses is among nearly two dozen companies — together awarded $1.6 million — selected for the latest Arch Grants program.
The innovation economy nonprofit on Thursday honored 19 startups, alongside three new members of its expanded Arch Grants Fellows Program. Each company receives $75,000 in non-dilutive grants.
The pocket-friendly NALOX-1 carrying case for easy transport of naloxone; photo courtesy of nCase Tech
nCase Tech — launched by co-founders Matthew Bitner-Glindzicz and Danielle Wilder during their time at Washington University in St. Louis — joins the cohort, adding fuel to its mission to bring to market discreet, durable, and convenient carrying cases for lifesaving emergency medicines.
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“It’s validation for the work we’ve done. It’s connections to expand our reach. It’s opportunities to save even more lives,” said Bitner-Glindzicz, noting the award allows the co-founders to build their business in the hometown they already love.
“We are so thankful to be building nCase Tech in St. Louis — from the entrepreneurial ecosystem support to the media coverage that’s helped share our story — the resources this city’s given us have been crucial to get where we are now,” he continued.
Gabe Angieri, executive director of Arch Grants, speaks during the 2025 Arch Grants gala; photo courtesy of Arch Grants
In addition to 13 homegrown companies, awardees selected from outside Missouri receive an additional $25,000 in grants to facilitate their relocation to St. Louis, a key requirement of the program. The 2025 Cohort includes companies relocating to Missouri from California, Idaho, Indiana and New York in addition to international transplants from Amsterdam, Netherlands and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“Entrepreneurship is the engine of growth that runs on innovation, community, and shared purpose,” said Gabe Angieri, executive director of Arch Grants. “These founders are additive to our momentum building an inclusive, resilient, and forward-looking St. Louis.”
Click here to learn more about the Arch Grants program in St. Louis.
2025 Arch Grants cohort members; photo courtesy of Arch Grants
Along with nCase Tech, 2025 Arch Grants winners include:
- Alfa-Ruby (Chris Pratt), Aberdeen, Idaho — Provides an unmatched plant protein that performs like animal protein with a significant cost advantage, plus added benefits of high sustainability and no allergenicity. Alfa-Ruby’s flagship RuBisCO Protein Isolate is derived from fresh harvested alfalfa.
- Archetype (Sarah Mirth, Dan Mirth), St. Louis — A smart platform that simplifies the way designers and developers plan, visualize, and furnish spaces. It replaces slow, fragmented workflows with fast, intelligent curation and procurement.
- BARE Zero Proof Spirits (James Kempland, Sam Newberg), St. Louis — Pioneering the U.S. non-alcoholic spirits category. The award-winning zero-proof spirits are crafted for people who choose to socialize without alcohol — offering full-flavored, authentic cocktail experiences: zero proof.
- ChiChi (Chiara Munzi, Izzy Gorton), San Francisco— On a mission to revolutionize breakfast with chickpeas, bringing real protein, fiber and satisfying texture to your morning.
- Ctrl Shift (Rhiannan Price, Io Blair), St. Louis — Building a one-of-a-kind video game where players are humanitarians on and off the screen. As they interact with immersive worlds and complete missions, players generate valuable geospatial insights that support humanitarian partners in the real world. (Powered by Kemper Geospatial Funding Initiative)
- Culture & Co. (Louise Huterstein-Olofsson), Amsterdam, Netherlands — The maker of Original Better, the only true 1:1 plant-based butter crafted specifically for professional kitchens. Already loved and trusted by European Michelin-starred chefs, we make butter, but better.
- Decodable Reads (Paul Heinemann, Joe de Lorimier), Indianapolis — An AI-enhanced platform that transforms how organizations and schools implement the Science of Reading by generating personalized, skill targeted reading materials and lesson plans for students building foundational reading skills. We make evidence-based reading instruction more engaging for students and more efficient for busy educators. (#STLOnward Award, Powered by NISA Charitable Fund)
- Digitizer AI (John Pa), St. Louis — Revolutionizing the industrial embroidery industry — the same industry responsible for stitching logos onto baseball caps, polos, and countless other items. Behind every embroidered design is a specialized machine file, but creating that file is a manual process that can take days, creating major bottlenecks. Digitizer AI uses artificial intelligence to automate this process, revolutionizing the industry.
- Everywhere (Maxwell Citron, Irys Kornbluth), St. Louis — Powering enterprise circularity starting in the combined $3 trillion textile and building materials industries. We are transforming textile, plastic and agricultural waste into immediately scalable, cost-competitive, carbon-negative solutions for companies like Rivian, Coach and Chanel.
- GenAssist (Joe Beggs, Gabe Haas), St. Louis — Develops a patented biomaterial that enables the body to regrow functional muscle after it has been damaged or destroyed. The technology turns injuries once thought permanent into recoverable conditions.
- Jet.Build (Adam Stark), St. Louis — A modern development and construction management platform designed to unify developers, contractors, and project teams on a single, intuitive system. By streamlining workflows, communication, data, and project visibility, Jet.Build helps teams deliver projects faster and more efficiently. (#STLOnward Award, Powered by NISA Charitable Fund)
- LÆRO (Noemi Florea), Brooklyn, New York — Offers a compact water reuse system with its flagship product, Cycleau, designed to retrofit below sinks and showers to recycle greywater to potable standards, helping property owners save up to 60 percent on water utilities daily.
- NanoJump Bio (Julieta Celeste Imperiale), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina — Develops portable devices that enable on-site DNA and RNA extraction from any sample. NanoJump Bio’s technology makes genetic analysis faster, easier, and accessible anywhere.
- Petabolix (Blake Wayman, Sam Spencer), St. Louis — Uses advanced technology to deliver precise pet food recommendations tailored to each animal’s unique nutritional needs by collecting pet data, generating a personalized nutritional assessment, and analyzing thousands of diets in its industry-leading database to identify the proper options.
- Remvia (Andrea Morris, Nephi Zufelt), St. Louis — A soft-tissue-based device that treats nocturnal bruxism—nighttime clenching and grinding—by disrupting the cycle that drives it. Unlike traditional guards, Remvia helps reduce the behavior itself through a novel, non-tooth-based design.
- Show Me The World Coffee (Sylvester Chisom, Samantha Lurie Carroll), St. Louis — A mission-driven specialty coffee and tea company where every purchase fuels transformative educational opportunities for youth from under-resourced communities. Through our virtual fundraising platform, retail partnerships, and event presence, Show Me the World Coffee is creating purpose driven growth one cup at a time.
- The Peer Network (Kurt Schmidt, Steven Peterson), St. Louis — A digital front door to mental health and recovery, a telehealth platform where anyone can connect with a certified peer. The Peer Network reimagines support as simple, human, and stigma-free.
- Zaiko (Franklin Taylor, Jason Ti), St. Louis — A customer engagement platform that helps independent restaurants, retailers and service businesses bring in repeat customers and increase their sales through effective outreach programs that actually get customers to respond. (#STLOnward Award, Powered by NISA Charitable Fund)
Since its founding in 2012, Arch Grants has awarded more than $20 million in non-dilutive funding. In turn, its portfolio companies have created over 4,000 jobs, paid out over $239 million in local wages, attracted over $870 million in follow-on capital and generated over $1.3 billion in revenue.
Unlike traditional venture capital or government-backed programs, Arch Grants is entirely donor-powered, allowing founders to retain full ownership of their companies while gaining access to capital, mentorship, and a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Alaina Maciá, CEO of MTM Health, accepts Arch Grants’ 2025 Entrepreneur Award at the 2025 Arch Grants gala; photo courtesy of Arch Grants
“Philanthropy is the fuel that powers our work,” said Angieri. “Every dollar invested in Arch Grants generates measurable local impact — new jobs, local wages, and a stronger innovation economy for St. Louis. The individuals, foundations, and corporations that donate to Arch Grants make all our work possible.”
The Oct. 17 Arch Grants gala — which also honored Alaina Maciá, CEO of MTM Health, with the organization’s 2025 Entrepreneur Award for her leadership and impact — served as a platform for the Arch Grants Fellows Program, a peer advisory and leadership support collective founded in 2023 to accelerate ideation, growth, and making connections in St. Louis.
The program welcomed three fast-growing, later-stage companies and their founders during the event:
- Dad’s Cookie Co. (Chad Huber), St. Louis — Spreads happiness, one delicious cookie at a time. Dad’s Cookies deliver an excellent value and experience to customers through efficient manufacturing, tech-enabled distribution, and story-driven retailing.
- Saluna (Matt Plummer, Mike Gerau), St. Louis — Unites a group of experienced agricultural researchers and entrepreneurs who passionately believe that Midwestern growers need more planting choices than they currently have. Saluna is applying modern technology to a legacy crop; their Industrial Hemp applies modern innovation and reliability. Saluna works with farmers for a better ROI for oil seed crops, an improved nutritional profile for the end user, and better soil health.
- Trestle (Victor Zhang), St. Louis — Building AI-powered infrastructure for heavy construction procurement, starting with vendor risk management, expanding into full-stack bidding, and contract creation. Trestle helps general contractors and project owners with the best subcontractors and suppliers on every project.
Arch Grants also recently celebrated the ribbon cutting of its newly expanded headquarters in downtown St. Louis, a collaborative space designed to give Arch Grants founders a dedicated place to work, innovate, and connect with one another and with community partners.
The new HQ dovetails with the official launch of a new lending program at Arch Grants, in partnership with the James S. McDonnell Foundation and St. Louis Community Credit Union, which will expand access to capital for Arch Grants founders from historically marginalized backgrounds and those operating in underserved areas of St. Louis City and North County.
More than 74 percent of the 2025 Arch Grants cohort members are led or co-led by women, people of color, or immigrants, advancing Arch Grants’ mission to build an entrepreneurial economy representative of the broader St. Louis region, the organization said.
“Arch Grants continues to show that inclusion and innovation thrive together,” said Zundra Bryant, board president of Arch Grants. “When visionary entrepreneurs find support, capital, and connection in St. Louis, extraordinary things happen, for their businesses and for our region.”
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