TechTown awards grants to 5 Detroit startups

Detroit — Detroit business incubator TechTown recently awarded close to $40,000 in subsidies to five up-and-coming Detroit businesses.

The Kickstart Award winners were all entrepreneurs who underwent TechTown’s eight-week Retail Boot Camp aimed at preparing the Detroit-based startups to open brick-and-mortar location in Detroit commercial districts.

This year’s winners include an affordable primary care medical practice, a tattoo parlor, dessert bar, a skin care line and a wine bar.

“We are proud of Retail Boot Camp’s tremendous track record of success,” said Regina Ann Campbell, TechTown’s managing director for place-based entrepreneurship, in a news release. “We’re excited to see all 21 of our newest graduates move their businesses forward, and we look forward to at least five more grand openings in the coming year.”

Each of the businesses get a kickstart package that includes $7,500 in subsidies.

The 2016 winners include:

■Plum Health DPC, a medical practice offering “affordable, accessible healthcare services in Detroit.”

■Artistic Flesh Tattoo and Supply, an Oak Park tattoo parlor looking to relocate to Detroit.

■Kaleidoscope, “a late-night patisserie and bar producing high-quality European pastries, artisanal chocolates and confections.”

■Eartha’s Natural Skin Care, “an all-natural skin care line that includes body butter, skin salve, and bath soaks, to help those with dry and itchy skin, sensitive skin and eczema.”

■Brut Detroit Wine Bar, a pop-up wine bar offering tastings and social gatherings looking to open a shop in Grandmont Rosedale.

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