GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Start Garden announced a major restructuring of The 100, its annual entrepreneur competition, bringing together multiple capital providers for the first time to offer more than $500,000 in funding opportunities to businesses at various stages of development.
The eight-year-old competition, which has connected more than 800 Michigan founders with funding and community resources, historically focused on new business ideas. The revamped format now includes five capital partners offering corporate contracts, loans, shared revenue agreements, venture capital and grants.
The 2026 capital partners include GROW, which provides small business loans; Opportunity Ventures, offering shared revenue agreements; Union Heritage, providing venture capital; Meijer, offering first-customer contracts for food and consumer product companies; and Start Garden, which will continue providing grants…