Three local startups will compete next month in the semifinals for a shot at $1 million in 43North’s annual pitch contest.
43North, a largely state-funded accelerator and incubator, has revealed the 16 semi-finalists, which were narrowed down from a pool of nearly 1,000 applications
They will pitch on Oct. 9, and eight will continue on to the 43North Finals on Oct. 10 at Shea’s Performing Arts Center, where the organization will dole out five $1 million grand prizes.
In return, the five winners must each make Buffalo their headquarters for at least a year and give 43North a 5% stake in their respective companies.
The three Buffalo semi-finalists are: BosonQ Psi, which uses quantum computing to speed up virtual simulations; Offerwell, which created an online real estate platform to help agents submit, accept and manage offers; and FoodNerd, which uses its processing technology to create food products that are both healthy and convenient.
The other 13 semi-finalists are:
- 8B Education Investments, based in Ithaca
- Cache, based in New York
- Cactivate, based in Boston
- Cosi Care, based in Swansea, UK
- CoverRight, based in Brooklyn
- FLUIX, based in Tampa, Florida
- HeronAI, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Lilo, based in New York
- NearWave, based in Austin, Texas
- Rarebiard, based in San Francisco
- Spiky.ai, based in Brookline, Massachusetts
- xPub, based in New York
- Zeph, based in New York
Last year, the five winners were: Guidesly, KAV, Kredit Academy, StepWise and StoreCash. Learn more about the winning companies here.
43North changed up starting in 2022 its prize structure from a $1 million grand prize and seven $500,000 prizes – as it had done the previous few years – to five $1 million prizes. The bigger checks aimed to bring high-quality startups with already-raised capital and growing teams to Buffalo.
