MTC Awards Over $2 Million Through the 2026 Physical Infrastructure Grant Program
By MTC Staff, Missouri Technology Corporation. August, 2026
The Missouri Technology Corporation (MTC) Board of Directors has approved over $2 million in funding for the 2026 Physical Infrastructure Grant Program cycle. This grant-based program seeks to ensure that entrepreneurs across the state have access to the physical infrastructure and resources necessary to launch and grow their businesses.
To date, MTC has awarded almost $7 million through the Physical Infrastructure Grant Program to seventeen different organizations throughout Missouri in urban and rural areas. These awards support the expansion and enhancement of startup-focused spaces such as shared labs, offices, and innovation hubs that are critical to launching and scaling early-stage companies statewide.
The Physical Infrastructure Grant Program was developed in response to the Catalyzing Innovation Report to replace and expand MTC’s previous infrastructure-related funding support through a competitive, statewide grant process. The program reflects MTC’s strategic priority to support regionally led, grant-based ecosystem-building efforts through a competitive application process.
The following 2026 Physical Infrastructure grants have been approved:
Codefi Foundation on Rural Innovation
The Codefi Foundation for Rural Innovation is committed to enhancing people’s lives by promoting economic growth through various means such as education, mentoring, technology, and funding. They also strive to improve internet connectivity and technology access for both individuals and businesses.
Funding will support Codefi’s free and below-market coworking space in downtown Cape Girardeau.
Keystone Community Corporation
Keystone Community Corporation operates as the third pillar of Kansas City’s regional economic development architecture, building the infrastructure that recruits, develops, and retains the early-stage companies and founders who define the next generation of regional employers. Through an integrated portfolio of founder support programs and an absorption strategy that connects founders to Kansas City’s corporate base, university partners, and capital networks, Keystone converts the region’s structural advantages into companies-in-place, jobs created, and capital deployed. Anchored at CoLAB in East Crossroads, Keystone is the connective tissue that turns Kansas City’s innovation ecosystem into measurable economic outcomes.
Funding will support CoLab, a 13,200 ft2 entrepreneurial hub, to preserve affordable workspace, expand shared-use infrastructure, and strengthen CoLab’s role as a recognized center for entrepreneurship and innovation in Missouri.
The purpose of LPI’s LAMP Campus is not to participate in direct engagement with members of the community, but more crucially, to support its Community Partners (KC Digital Drive, ReDiscover, reStart, Front Porch Alliance, Key Coalition Neighborhood, and Heartland Presbytery) to do what they do best. All Community Partners at LAMP are experts at reaching the hardest of the hard-to-reach with expertise in exposing individuals’ talents, capacities, and areas for growth. By providing an affordable, aware, and insightful home-base of support, LPI frees these integral Community Partners to more fully and efficiently express their gifts of social purpose and to leverage their embedded connections within the community.
Funding will support construction and renovation costs for infrastructure dedicated for entrepreneurial cultivation, applied technology experimentation, innovation-focused business development, and emerging technology activities, including the Applied Technology Development Labs, founder commons and collaboration spaces, and conference and convening infrastructure.
Missouri Innovation Center, Inc.
The mission of the Missouri Innovation Center is to support and encourage entrepreneurs in Mid-Missouri as they establish high-growth ventures that enhance lives and boost the economy. This is achieved by offering clients tailored incubation support services that cater to their specific requirements. Alongside other technology commercialization initiatives, the center provides high-growth entrepreneurs with specialized business incubation facilities such as wet laboratories, shared lab equipment and resources, and office spaces.
Funding will support offsetting the utility load of the MU Life Science Business Incubator, which houses offices, co-working spaces, and wet laboratories in central Missouri.
Missouri State University’s efactory
The efactory is a technology-focused hub for new businesses and entrepreneurial development. It brings together various economic development and business resource organizations in Southwest Missouri to provide a convenient place for entrepreneurs to grow their ventures, from the initial stages to becoming established and creating job opportunities.
Funding will support the expansion and modernization of entrepreneur-facing infrastructure for coworking and shared spaces at efactory.
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Missouri University of Science and Technology’s mission is to create an economic impact that captures the Institute’s role in driving innovation, entrepreneurship and industry collaboration that translate research into real-world solutions by supporting commercialization pathways, fostering partnerships with industries and investing in innovation ecosystems. These efforts strengthen Missouri’s economy, expand opportunities for students and faculty, and position S&T as a leader in applied research and economic development.
Funding will support incubator and co-working space at their Technology Development Center and future ARC and BIOPLEX incubator spaces.
St Louis Regional Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Center (AMICSTL)
The Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Center St. Louis (AMICSTL) is building the foundation for Missouri’s next era of industrial innovation. As a regional catalyst for collaboration, AMICSTL connects industry, education, and research to accelerate technology adoption, expand workforce readiness, and strengthen the region and state’s competitive advantage in advanced manufacturing.
Funding will support the innovation center’s acquisition and operation of a Markforged FX10 Metal 3D printer necessary to complete the additive manufacturing continuum and remove cost and lead-time barriers that have historically prevented Missouri entrepreneurs from accessing metal prototyping and production validation.
Technology Entrepreneur Center, Inc. (dba T-REX)
The mission of Technology Entrepreneur Center, Inc. (dba T-REX) is to foster the St. Louis startup community by providing facilities to entrepreneurs to allow them to reduce risks, lower capital and operating costs, and achieve early success; creating and welcoming programming that encourages entrepreneurship, innovation, and business creativity; and having accelerators, mentors, universities, business resources, and government-assisted programs in close proximity to early-stage companies.
Funding will support maintenance and technology upgrades across TREX’s 160,000-square-foot, eight-story innovation facility, including office and coworking spaces, specialized laboratories, and advanced technology infrastructure.