Yield Lab travels to Ireland

World Trade Center St. Louis

St. Louis Firm Grows in Ireland

Commentary from World Trade Center Executive Director Tim Nowak

This past summer, the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership and World Trade Center St. Louis led a trade mission to Europe

Thirty four representatives from the St. Louis innovation community traveled to France and Ireland.  Leveraging longstanding relationships developed by our sister city committees in Lyon and Galway, along with St. Louis’ special connection to Ambassador Kevin O’Malley in Dublin, we showcased St. Louis’ startup story on a global scale.

We partnered with local leaders to discover what each community is doing to encourage and support the rise of innovation ecosystems as a means for economic growth.  We toured incubators and networked with global entrepreneurs.  We held discussions on the universities role in entrepreneurship.  In the end, we came together to strengthen our commercial ties through innovation and collaboration.

(Photo courtesy of Kelly Hamilton)

The commercial ties were evident when St. Louis based ag-tech accelerator, The Yield Lab, announced the launch of Yield Lab Galway during the mission.  And in late October, these same ties were reinforced with the addition of Paul Finnerty as chairman of The Yield Lab Galway.  Paul’s international agribusiness background, coupled with The Yield Lab’s experience in evaluating and cultivating the best new industry ideas, provide a powerful combination to further promote St. Louis’ ag-tech leadership position on a global scale.

Make no mistake, successful trade missions such as this are directly tied to St. Louis’ work with the Brookings Institute – Global Cities Initiative and the integrated Export and Foreign Direct Investment plans that recommend connecting regional assets and leaders to global opportunities.  St. Louis is doing just that.

Click here to read the announcement of Paul Finnerty joining The Yield Lab team.