Who We Are

Founded in 1998, the Center for Emerging Technologies (CET) is the largest and oldest Innovation Center in Missouri. CET is nationally recognized for providing the infrastructure and resources needed for early-stage, high-growth companies in the fields of information technology, bioscience and manufactured products to innovate and thrive. An affiliate of the Cortex Innovation Community since 2012, CET fills an important program role in the Cortex district and broader St. Louis region.

CET was the launch pad for companies like Orion Genomics, Metaphase and BacterioScan and is the home of growing ventures including Aisle411, C2N, and Influence & Co. The success of these and many other companies in the District is the result of the development and delivery of entrepreneurial support services, which is the key objective of all state-designated Innovation Centers. We are proud to be part of a statewide network of Innovation Centers whose programs and services:

  • Stimulate high-growth entrepreneurship
  • Identify ventures and market opportunities
  • Support business planning, implementation and growth
  • Provide access to startup funding and growth capital
  • Incubate ventures through mentoring and facility resources
  • Support the planning, financing and execution of research and development

CET’s signature programs include the Square One (SQ1) Ignite and Boot Camp training programs, workshops and seminars, and other educational programming, often done in partnership with other ecosystem partners. We are also pleased to host the monthly House of Genius events. CET’s programs are available at little or no cost to early stage entrepreneurs throughout the region thanks to the generous support of the Missouri Technology Corporation and U.S. Small Business Administration as part of the SBA Regional Innovation Clusters Program.

CET includes a 88,000 sq. ft. facility offering shared lab facilities, private wet and dry labs, production and office space, and shared equipment, conference rooms and amenities. A $5M renovation was completed in June 2015 which includes District’s first co-working space. CET’s physical plant is managed by CIC St. Louis and is known as CIC@CET.

Entrepreneurs and companies that reside at CIC@CET benefit from Cortex’s affiliations with Washington University, St. Louis University and University of Missouri St. Louis. This includes an agreement that streamlines their access to selected core facilities. These core facilities provide start-up and growing companies at CET with access to equipment and expertise that are critically important to scaling high-growth IT and bioscience ventures. Included are cores for mass spectrometry, NMR, flow cytometry, comparative medicine, genomics, protein purification, high throughput screening, microscopy, cell/hybridoma development, GMP production and proteomic.

For more information on the CIC@CET co-working space or other office and lab space available at CIC@CET click here.