Organizations whose mission is to create partnerships and advance economic development are celebrating financial windfalls. Entrepreneurs and start-ups are right in the middle of it.
Economic Development Partnership of Aiken and Edgefield Counties, Inc., better known as Western SC, learned it is one of 14 groups chosen for 2026 Relentless Challenge grants. Collaborating with Western SC are the South Carolina Research Authority and the Aiken Chamber of Commerce.
“Our organization is looking for job creation and capital investment opportunities,” Will Williams, President and CEO of Western SC, told ABD. “The chamber is about growing the Aiken community through small businesses, and the South Carolina Research Authority has tools that can help entrepreneurs grow, and they’ve been looking pretty closely at Aiken over the last year.”
Jim Tunison, President of the Aiken Chamber, said the funds will be used for the Aiken Venture Lab. It is part of the Innovation Corridor, which was announced last year. Its goal is to attract innovators, grow talent, and drive enterprise.
“The real key is we have the places, we have the people, and now we need the programming,” he explained. “This is our attempt at instituting some programming to really help our local entrepreneurs take their product and service to the next level.”
There is one more entity involved with the team in South Carolina. Eric Parker, co-founder of Make Startups, based in theClubhou.se in the Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center (GCITC), said his organization will be the delivery partner for the Aiken Venture Lab.
“We will be accelerating 10 companies over the summer, and it’s also given us the ability to form a new angel investment group here, serving the CSRA,” said Parker. “We already have a number of investors who have committed, and their commitment is basically to provide funding for the graduates of the accelerator program this fall.”
The South Carolina grant comes fast on the heels of last week’s announcement that Make Startups Institute was selected as one of 13 recipients of a grant from Meta. The institute is a partnership with Make Startups and the Aiken Chamber.
Tunison said they began talking with Meta about the grant program more than a year ago.
“Really excited for Aiken and our whole region and really excited for our local small business owners and our entrepreneurs who are doing the real work right there,” he said. “They’re in the daily grind, and we’re just hoping that we can help them live out their dreams and aspirations and take their businesses to the next level.”
Williams said the two funding sources are separate, but the work being done complements each other.
“They all fall underneath the startup entrepreneurial umbrella, not really related, but trying to go towards the thing that’s been missing in Aiken for a long time, and that’s that startup entrepreneurial culture ecosystem,” he said.
For Parker, the dual grants mark a tangible step in a journey he began 15 years ago to grow development in both states.
“We already are supporting other cities in South Carolina. So, the more we can aggregate this activity in a very data-driven way, the more intelligence we get as a community, and the more our community is seen as an epicenter for how deal flow happens in the world of venture capital and the world of microfinance. So, have I made it? I think I’m still just getting started.”
More information about the Aiken Innovation Corridor is at: www.aicorridor.net/home.
More than $760,000 is being distributed in the commerce department program. The full list of Relentless Challenge recipients is:
- BlacQuity – Lowcountry Black Business Capital & Growth Initiative (LBBCGI)
- Center for Opportunity and Entrepreneurial Advancement (COEA) – Launch in 60 Marketplace
- Clemson University Division of Research – Bridging STEM and Entrepreneurship: A Paired Course Model for Commercialization Readiness
- eMYRge – eMYRge Golf Tech Accelerator Challenge (GTAC)
- Entrepreneurship For All – Capital Ready Lowcountry: Advancing Financial Opportunities and Connections for Small Businesses
- Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce – The Network: Minority Business Accelerator Alumni Program
- GrowCo Columbia Inc. – Boyd Innovation Center – GrowCo Fund: Establishing a Non-Profit Investments Fund for Scalable South Carolina Startups
- Increasing H.O.P.E. – Ready to Grow: One-to-One Business Accelerator
- Lowcountry Local First – Lowcountry Kiva Hub
- Navigating from Good to Great Foundation – Columbia Chamber of Commerce – Wendell Jones Leadership Institute
- Growth Blueprint Midlands Business Accelerator
- NextGEN – Fix My Pitch
- Southern Palmetto Foundation – Propel Omni-Path: Digital Strategies for Rural Retail Business Success
- The Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Furman University – The Future Catalyst Project
