UNCW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Wilmington-based startup Local Catch are among the recipients of the latest round of NC IDEA grant funding.

The grant awards, announced in a news release this week, aim to support entrepreneurs and partner organizations statewide. Of the $1.7 million in total grant funding, $1.2 million was dedicated to supporting rural entrepreneurs.

CIE was one of 18 organizations to receive an NC IDEA ECOSYSTEM grant. CIE director Heather McWhorter said Friday that the center received $50,000 to support its Idea Test Lab, an early-stage accelerator program that helps entrepreneurs develop their ideas and businesses.

“It's one of the new signature programs that we have for really creating the next tech startups of our region,” McWhorter said about Idea Test Lab.

At the end of the four-week program, two top businesses or ideas are awarded $10,000 to support future development. The program began last year with a Women in Tech Cohort, funded by a grant from Wells Fargo. 

That initial money is about to run out, McWhorter said. The NC IDEA grant came just in time to support the next two cohorts – one will focus on blue tech and climate tech, while the other will focus on health tech and biotech. CIE is currently accepting applications for the blue tech and climate tech cohorts, McWhorter said.

About 30% of CIE’s work involves ocean innovation, and McWhorter said she sees the potential for Wilmington to develop into a blue tech hub. She also hopes the health tech and biotech program will capitalize on the region’s existing work in the clinical research and health tech fields. 

“We need programs like the Idea Test Lab in our community,” McWhorter said, “but it costs money to run them.”

Wilmington-based Genesis Block Foundation is also part of an entrepreneur support collective, which received an NC IDEA ECOSYSTEM grant.

Landon Hill, founder and owner of Local Catch, declined to say how much grant funding he received from NC IDEA, but he was one of 11 recipients of the organization's Rural Impact Grant. 

Hill’s app, which currently has around 1,300 users, helps connect commercial fishermen with seafood dealers, restaurants and individual buyers. Fishermen can create “In the Cooler” posts to advertise their available seafood, and prospective buyers like fish markets or restaurants can make “Cast” posts about the seafood they want to buy.

Local Catch received a MICRO grant from NC IDEA last spring and was also named a 2024 Coastal Entrepreneurship Award winner in the technology category.

The grants, each up to $20,000, support businesses that previously received a MICRO or SEED grant from NC IDEA. According to a news release, they aim to provide funding for start-ups either headquartered in a rural county or with a “clear and significant impact” on rural North Carolina communities.

Wells Fargo provided $200,000 in grant funding. The recent grants are a direct outcome of a comprehensive report from NC IDEA, funded by Wells Fargo, with in-depth analysis and recommendations around rural entrepreneurship statewide.

Hill said he’s spent the last year building the app’s features, including new push notifications and a PayPal payment option. He’s also worked on developing Log Book, a research-focused part of the app, and other features.

“We're working on a couple really big projects that are really going to dramatically affect what we're doing,” he said, “in terms of adding some really big, key new features that will reshape us as a company and how we are ultimately changing and … innovating inside of the seafood supply chain.”

He said he couldn’t disclose details about the features but expects them to launch in the coming months.

“Ultimately, the majority of our North Carolina business is conducted in rural North Carolina,” Hill said, “and our use of funds will ultimately help … the supply chain and local economies in those rural North Carolina communities.”

Clarification: This version of the story adds information about an NC IDEA ECOSYSTEM grant for the entrepreneur support collective, which includes Genesis Block Foundation.