Startup Exit Awards: Exits of the Year – Benson Hill and Nerdy
Benson Hill and Nerdy didn’t begin with ambitions of becoming public companies. They started in hopes of providing solutions.
Chuck Cohn founded Nerdy (NYSE: NRDY) in 2007 as an in-home tutoring business after struggling to find a tutor for help while studying at Washington University. Benson Hill (NYSE: BHIL) began in 2012 to commercialize research out of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center focused on improving crop yields.
Today, the scope of each company has vastly expanded. Nerdy, the Clayton-based parent company of Varsity Tutors, offers an array of online tutoring tools for everything from online instruction to self-study. Benson Hill, based in Creve Coeur, has emerged as a food technology company focused on commercializing plant-based ingredients and fresh produce. READ MORE