Photo Courtesy: Poll Pad by KNOWiNK

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KNOWiNK Wins Pitch Competition

KNOWiNK, a former client of STL Partnership Business Center at Lemay, awarded $1M from well-respected Chaifetz Group.

Read more: St. Louis Business Journal Article by Nathan Rubbelke

A former St. Louis Economic Development Partnership client that began at the Lemay startup incubator recently won a pitch competition.

The Chaifetz Group, the private investment firm of Saint Louis University benefactor and entrepreneur Richard Chaifetz, awarded investments of a combined $1.2 million for two St. Louis startups as part of the inaugural Chaifetz STLaunch pitch competition held Monday evening at SLU’s Chaifetz Arena. Following pitches from four St. Louis companies, Chaifetz Group announced its investments: $200,000 in Juristat and $1 million in KNOWiNK.

Juristat produces analytics to help patent attorneys and agents improve their prosecution and marketing strategies. KNOWiNK, which has 45 full-time employees and had revenues of $17.5 million in 2018, has an elections software product called the Poll Pad. The product’s technology simplifies voter check-in and provides instant updates to voter history.

The Chaifetz Group partnered with St. Louis nonprofit Arch Grants for Monday’s event. Past Arch Grants recipients were eligible for the competition. The two winners, Juristat and KNOWiNk, were both 2013 Arch Grants winners. The event kicked off Chaifetz Group’s plans to invest further in St. Louis. In an interview earlier this month with the Business Journal, Richard and his son, Ross, director of venture capital at Chaifetz Group, detailed the firm’s plan for St. Louis.

Photo Courtesy: St. Louis Business Journal, Scott Leiendecker of KNOWiNK