Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), opened for business this week at CIC@4240 inside the Wexford Science + Technologybuilding at St. Louis’ world-class Cortex Innovation Community, marking CIC’s first expansion outside of Massachusetts.

While the community boasts on its website that it houses “More startups than anywhere else on the planet”, its St. Louis location will begin with about 20 clients, eventually growing to house as many as 75 companies in its St. Louis location, from entrepreneurs and growth businesses to strategic service firms and investor groups.

CIC, which has long been courted by Cortex, has proven it attracts a vibrant mix of both entrepreneurs, startups, and well-established, multinational companies.

Simply put, large companies want to be around young entrepreneurs and the technology they are developing and young companies need the expertise and networking opportunities larger companies offer. Moreover, billions have been invested in CIC-hosted companies, and CIC will further embed St. Louis as a major player on the national startup scene.

CIC@4240 occupies 32,000 square feet of space of the second floor, subdivided in a variety of more than 70 office spaces.

Large offices can house up to 20 people, while “Unos” accommodate one person. More than half of CIC’s footprint consists of community space, including a large event space, 13 conference rooms, a nursing mother’s room, soft seating areas, eight phone booths, and a large kitchen and café.

Companies taking up residence in CIC@4240 include Nestle Purina Petcare, Frienedy, Synek Draft System, Oral Genomics, Stone Carlie, Twain Financial Partners, Azimuth Energy, The Mission Center, IdeaLab, Champio, Elasticity, Polsinelli, OG Systems, CTY.io, Grove Properties, Workgroup Connections, PharmaRen, Lemnatec, Treloar Enterprises, Corrigan-Jones, Cortex and Venture Café Foundation.