News
Winrock’s Multicultural Business Xcellerator to hold Demo Day, launch first cohort of founders
July 24, 2024
The Multicultural Business Xcellerator, led by Winrock International and funded by the Walton Family Foundation and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, is designed to support scalable ventures led by multicultural founders. Through personalized mentoring, access to capital, and a robust network of investors and customers, MBX accelerates the growth of these promising startups. The project’s goal […]
Vickie Woodard plants seeds of community growth
May 22, 2024
Vickie Woodard has always planted her own seeds to build community. Now, the seeds are sprouting ─ literally. A tireless entrepreneur and community activist from England, Arkansas ─ a city of just under 3,000 people in the state’s economically fragile Delta region ─ Woodard secured a $90,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to […]
Enduring innovation: Health tech startup incubated by Winrock-led programs poised for growth
May 2, 2024
MappedOut Health is a client of Winrock International’s former Innovate Arkansas program, a state-funded initiative that assisted more than 750 startup companies in Arkansas, raised $473 million in capital and generated $939 million in revenue over a 15-year period. As with many innovations, the origin story of the promising new health technology firm, MappedOut Health, […]
Startup Recruiting Fund at Winrock International invests in AI electromagnetic spectrum technology company
April 24, 2024
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. ─ The Startup Recruiting Fund at Winrock International ─ the first not-for-profit, evergreen fund aimed at recruiting high-growth startups to Arkansas ─ has announced an investment in Xtremis, an AI electromagnetic spectrum technology company that was spun-out of Vanderbilt University in 2021 through the Civil Military Innovation Institute, Defense Innovation Incubator. Proceeds from […]
Delta communities collaborate with Winrock to shape a prosperous future
February 5, 2024
On an unseasonably warm mid-November day in Arkansas, five members of Winrock International’s Board of Directors accompanied a group of U.S.-based senior executives and Winrock program staff on an excursion to a unique destination: the Arkansas Delta. Arkansans know “the Delta” as it’s referred to regionally, but the patchwork of mostly flat, open-field farms and […]
Winrock’s top stories of 2023
January 2, 2024
Innovation Hub hosts Make48 national competition in North Little Rock
November 27, 2023
Eight teams from across the country faced off at Winrock’s Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub for a soon-to-be-televised competition aimed at tackling one of the most complex social challenges in the U.S.: How to help members of the nation’s vast unhoused population successfully transition into new homes. Make48 is a national invention competition, recorded for future […]
Winrock International’s Multicultural Business Xcellerator (MBX) champions inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship in Arkansas
October 19, 2023
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. ─ Winrock International is excited to introduce the Multicultural Business Xcellerator (MBX), an initiative supported by the Walton Family Foundation aimed at promoting inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship in Arkansas. MBX will target ten companies in its first cohort – five from Arkansas and five from outside the state. Cohort members will participate […]
Winrock’s Innovation Hub to host Make48 Season 7 National Competition
October 4, 2023
Eight teams from across the country are getting ready to face each other at Make48’s season 7 national championship. The competition is set to happen at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub at Winrock International in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The event will unfold over three days starting on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023, and ending on […]
The keys to inclusive small business success in the South: Affordable finance and pro advice
August 29, 2023
For small business owners in the U.S. South like Tandra Jordan, Darius Walker and Jerrell Simpson, failure was never an option. But it was always looming. Jordan is a single mom with two kids working full-time as a claims adjuster while trying to keep up with a fast-growing cleaning business in Little Rock, Ark. Walker […]