Boston’s showing for the Challenge Cup startup competition, scheduled for Thursday, has seen big growth from last year, with 25 companies competing from the Boston area this year compared to 15 last year.
The event is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Microsoft Nerd Center in Cambridge.
Participating startups give a one-minute pitch at the event, and winners from that round move on to give a five-minute pitch. The field is eventually narrowed to four companies that will go on to pitch at the Challenge Festival in Washington, D.C., in May. Prizes awarded out of that festival equal $650,000, and a total of 16 cities (from 11 countries) will be sending startups to the festival.
Update: The winners of the Boston competition are AdmitHub, Orco Power, Fluid-Screen and OpportunitySpace.
The Challenge Cup was founded out of 1776, a DC incubator and seed fund, which is partnering with the Cambridge Innovation Center to host the local event.
Here’s the list of startups pitching at the Boston event, with descriptions via 1776:
Education
- AdmitHub offers free, expert college admissions advising online.
- CourseKicker is an online collaboration network for K-12 teachers.
- dotLearn aims to make digital education as accessible and usable in the developing world as it is in the U.S., so that access to broadband or to a desktop computer isn't a barrier for someone who's looking to learn.
- Freelanship is an online platform that allows companies to post projects for emerging talent, who may be interested in full-time positions.
- Hstry is a digital learning tool that enables teachers and students to create and explore interactive historical timelines, helping them chronologically follow an event through the eyes of an individual as it unfolded in the past.
- Lea(R)n empowers states, schools and districts to know which technology products are best for their classrooms.
- LearnLux creates online learning tools to teach people personal finance when they need it most.
- The Teaching Genome provides tools that change the culture of collaboration at underperforming schools so that teams can harness the power of diverse teaching styles to improve learning.
- UberAcademic - BlenED K12 mobile product sets out to create a better way for students anywhere to find high-quality in home private tutors.
Energy
- Orco Power is an energy service company that produces additives that modify crude oil to replace diesel fuel in high RPM engines.
- Qorax Energy is a distributed energy product channel that taps hidden growth markets globally, with a focus on post-conflict and other inefficient energy markets.
- Sol Power leases and sells solar cell phone charging stations that are free to end users and act as an outdoor advertising platform for customers.
Health
- Admetsys has developed the first fully-automated glucose control system specifically for the needs of hospital and surgical care.
- bosWell is building a mobile application to track care provided to the most at risk population and triage individuals with the most need before they become super-utilizers in the healthcare system.
- Fluid-Screen is a startup venture, which makes the world a safer place by enabling rapid bacterial detection from fluid samples.
- Hermes Innovation is currently preparing to unveil the brilliant brainchild of its collaborative endeavor: SAY Social Smart Jewelry—the next big thing in wearables, where high fashion meets cutting-edge technology.
- LifeGuard Games - Wellapets creates a series of mobile games to teach and motivate kids to stay well by combining the sticky game-play of virtual pets with pediatrician-approved health content. Its first game teaches kids ages 6-10 to manage asthma by caring for a lovable pet dragon who also has asthma.
- Oncolinx is developing advanced, targeted cancer therapies that are more effective and have dramatically fewer side effects than current methods of cancer treatment.
- Personal Remedies provide indvidualized health & nutrition apps for chronic conditions.
- Supply Clinic makes it easy for dentists and physicians to purchase low-priced supplies from a wide selection of vendors – all in one order.
- Varada Innovations develops surgical systems and tools that significantly improve major soft tissue surgeries in both humans and animals, while in turn reducing long-term healthcare costs.
Transportation and cities
- HelmetHub makes helmet rental possible. The startup builds kiosks and software that allows riders to rent helmets when and where they rent bikes."
- Open Data Discourse - For government agencies and non-profit organizations with public-facing data, ODD finds efficiencies in governance and improves communities by challenging citizens to develop local data insights and policy solutions in contests and events.
- Zwayo Technologies has developed a technology and service that allows city drivers to request an on-demand valet to their location, almost anywhere in the city, who will park on their behalf.
- Skedaddle is a social platform for organizing custom bus trips; users can create routes, invite friends or colleagues, and buy tickets, making direct bus travel convenient and affordable.
