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The basics:

• NJEDA programs help women, minority entrepreneurs access funding and mentorship
• NJCSIT grants have leveraged $32.3M into significant follow-on investment and job creation
• Founders say networks such as Golden Seeds provide critical support in raising capital

Many small business owners find that one of the biggest obstacles isn’t vision — instead it’s access to expensive gear and specialized research infrastructure. For PolyGone Systems, a New Jersey clean-tech company tackling microplastic contamination in water, a New Jersey Economic Development Authority R&D Voucher Grant changed the trajectory of the business.

“This grant is specifically designed for small businesses to get access to university facilities,” said PolyGone co-founder and COO Yidian Liu. “There is a lot of very expensive equipment that we can’t afford ourselves. That really allowed us to do a lot more experiments, save our R&D costs, and boost our impact.”

The grant-enabled university access also helped PolyGone launch an entirely new revenue stream — selling testing services to municipalities, the drinking water industry, and private businesses. The company now offers individual testing services, allowing homeowners to submit tap water samples for microplastic analysis. Liu describes 2025 as a pivotal commercialization year, with multiple full-scale systems under construction in New Jersey and venture capital backing already secured.

Right grant, right time

For innovation-driven SMB owners, her experience serves as a reminder that the right grant at the right time can move a company from startup to scale — and that New Jersey’s ecosystem of state agencies, angel networks, and research partnerships exists precisely to make that possible.

New Jersey’s women- and minority-owned business ecosystem is experiencing unprecedented growth — alongside persistent systemic friction. While state-led initiatives have channeled billions into the economy, people of color, who make up nearly half of the state’s population, account for less than 30% of its businesses, according to the most recent census data. And women, who make up slightly more than half of the state’s population, own about 41% of Garden State businesses, according to the latest SBA [Small Business Administration] data.

The NJEDA recognizes this gap, and is working to close it. “Historically, the world of innovation entrepreneurship has been dominated by men — generally white men,” said, NJEDA Chief Economic Transformation Officer Kathleen Coviello. “There is no real strong guidance on how to raise capital and determine a capital stack for a startup entrepreneur in the innovation space.”

Coviello says the two biggest obstacles facing non-traditional founders are awareness and access. To address both, the NJEDA has built a suite of programs targeting women, minorities, and first-time entrepreneurs who have historically been locked out of the startup ecosystem.

Angels in the architecture

One of the NJEDA’s signature initiatives is its co-founding role in the New Jersey chapter of Golden Seeds, a national angel investor network focused on backing women-led businesses. When NJEDA approached Golden Seeds about a Garden State chapter, the national organization initially pushed back — its New York chapter already covered the region. “New York is not your New Jersey,” Coviello recalled telling them. “The chapter has since reviewed 217 businesses run by female entrepreneurs, held 61 monthly office hours sessions, and funded eight female-founded New Jersey companies.”

A persistent challenge for diverse entrepreneurs is that early-stage capital has traditionally flowed through personal networks — connections that many first-generation founders simply don’t have. “Not everyone has a rich uncle who can write a $500,000 check and not think twice about it,” Coviello said.

To fill that gap, the NJEDA created its Innovation Fellows program, which provides income substitution – essentially a stipend – so first-time entrepreneurs can pursue building a company without sacrificing financial stability. Cohorts move through the program together, with mentoring, training, and structured support alongside the funding.

At the venture capital level, the NJEDA’s Evergreen Fund works with more than 33 VC firms that invest in New Jersey businesses. A condition of participation: each firm must have a diversity, equity, and inclusion policy, and demonstrate meaningful progress against it. “We’re being thoughtful and mindful about awareness and opportunity access, even in the venture capital space,” Coviello said.

Looking ahead, Coviello cites $5 million in NJEDA grants supporting entrepreneurial training events tied to the upcoming FIFA World Cup as a signal of an administration thinking broadly about who economic opportunity should serve. “We want to make sure that all of our residents are able to access and become aware of resources to help grow their small businesses,” she said.

Real results

A sister agency to the NJEDA, the New Jersey Commission of Science, Innovation and Technology, provides non-dilutive grants to early-stage startups to help advance research and development — positioning it to attract federal funding and private investment down the road.

The results have been significant. “Since 2020, NJCSIT has issued 548 awards totaling $32.3 million,” said NJCSIT Executive Director Judith Sheft. “Companies that reported data were able to leverage NJCSIT funding 20-fold in follow-on financing — and created approximately 1,800 new jobs in New Jersey. The estimated taxes paid by these companies, at $29.2 million, exceeded the $26.8 million in grants they received.”

Diverse founders are well represented. In the most recent round of the Clean Tech R&D Seed Grant Program, 58% of awardees were certified as either minority- or women-owned businesses, according to Sheft. She acknowledged that women and minority entrepreneurs face distinct headwinds when seeking private investment, citing research showing that investors tend to ask men “promotion” questions focused on upside, while posing more cautionary, risk-focused questions to women. “Some of those things may be subconscious, unintended bias,” she explained.

To help companies overcome talent challenges, NJCSIT links startups to programs across state government, including the NJ Department of Labor’s Innovation, Research, and Fellowship Program, which funds companies to hire PhD postdoctoral researchers. In 2026, 75% of those fellowships went to NJCSIT awardees — several founded by women or minorities, including:

• Zena Therapeutics (female-founded)
• Princeton Critical Minerals (minority-founded)
• Kolate.AI Pharmatec Inc. (minority-founded)
• Mycsology Foods (female-founded)

“We try to link and leverage lots of initiatives across the state to help these young companies,” Sheft observed. “The human and financial ROI is impressive.”

Navigating male-dominated space

When Belmar resident Chelsea Boyle set out to build Forge Industries – a clean-tech company that transforms waste into sustainable fuel for heavy industry – she knew she was walking into rooms that weren’t built for her.

“I sit between two exceptionally male-dominated industries — construction, building materials, fossil fuels, energy,” said Forge CEO and founder Boyle. “That reality shapes who takes your calls, who reads your pitch deck, and who ultimately writes the check.”

Introduced to NJEDA through Golden Seeds, Boyle describes the experience as unlike anything she encountered elsewhere. “The entire process with both Golden Seeds and NJEDA was largely dominated by senior executives, angels, and investors — all of whom happened to be women,” she detailed. “Going through a parallel process with other types of ventures, and then this New Jersey process, it was night and day.”

NJEDA did not ultimately invest in Forge – public investment programs often carry operational or geographic requirements that early-stage startups can’t yet meet – but Boyle is clear that the relationship’s value extended well beyond any single funding decision.

“Those relationships run pretty deep,” she noted, adding that future Forge facilities in New Jersey or Pennsylvania remain part of the company’s longer-term plans.

Her message to other female founders: “You need to find the right network of support that will help you think differently about the toughest problems you’re going to face as a business. Find advisors who have been where you want to go and truly believe in you. When you have that in your corner, it changes the game.”