GEORGETOWN, Del. - Nine Delaware small businesses received a combined $1.15 million in state funding Tuesday through the EDGE 2.0 grant competition, with several recipients saying the money will help push long-awaited projects across the finish line.
The Delaware Division of Small Business and Gov. Matt Meyer announced the awards during a ceremony at Delaware Technical Community College’s Owens Campus in Georgetown.
The EDGE program, short for Encouraging Development, Growth and Expansion, provides funding to early-stage businesses through a competitive pitch process. This round drew 123 applicants, with 17 finalists presenting to judges earlier this month in entrepreneur and STEM categories.
Among the entrepreneur winners was Little Town, an indoor learning and play center planned for Milford.
Founder Chantel Helmick said the funding will help create an immersive space where families can play together in a miniature child-sized town.
“This is critical for us,” Helmick said. “Little Town is a child-scale themed miniature town. Essentially what it is, it is a place for children and their families and caregivers to come and not only be a community hub, but also for those caregivers to be able to play and be immersed in those child-scale themed houses with the children.”
Helmick said the $75,000 grant will allow the business to add features and amenities that may not have otherwise been possible during the initial buildout phase.
“We would not be able to move not only as quick, but be able to implement things such as added incentives to our customers, such as the mini kitchen,” she said.
Another entrepreneur winner, Rooted Properties Group of Lewes, received $85,000 to continue renovating a former fisherman’s motel into a boutique hospitality destination called Happy Place at Sunset.
Co-owner Athena Monet said the project faced several setbacks over the last year and a half.
“My husband and I own Rooted Properties Group, and we are opening up the Happy Place at Sunset,” Monet said. “We’ve dealt with having unauthorized occupants removed. We’ve had a fire, and we’ve had significant cleanup and restoration that we’ve moved through over the last 18 months.”
Monet said the grant funding will help complete the project ahead of a planned summer 2026 opening.
“We pulled a lot of our own retirement money and savings to make it happen, and we needed some help to close the gap to bring it to fruition and open the doors this summer of 2026,” she said.
The entrepreneur category also included awards for 3E’s Equestrian Education Program in Laurel, Huxley & Hiro Booksellers in Wilmington and SOMA Skin & Sculpt in Middletown.
STEM winners included Dunya Analytics, HouseCall VR and Trial IQ Technologies in Wilmington, along with NeuroSync in Hockessin.
Entrepreneur finalists competed for up to $400,000 in funding, while STEM finalists shared a $750,000 funding pool.
