A nail care startup, cloud infrastructure platform and non-invasive, self-administered HPV test are among the student ventures that will compete in the finals of the University of Chicago’s 2017 New Venture Challenge.
It’s the first time in the competition’s 21-year history that 11 startups have made it to the finals (typically 10 startups compete). This year, the winner of the international track of the competition, the Global NVC, was invited to compete in the main track as well. The startups will pitch at an all-day competition held June 1 at UChicago’s Harper Center, starting at 8:30 am (there will also be a livestream).
The UChicago New Venture Challenge is a nationally-ranked startup accelerator run out of the Booth School of Business. Over the last two decades, NVC companies have generated over $575 million in funding and delivered $4 billion in returns to investors. Grubhub and Braintree are among past NVC winners.
Last year TransparentCareer, a startup bringing transparency to compensation and career trajectories, won the $90,000 top prize.
Here’s a look at the 11 startups competing in this year’s New Venture Challenge (descriptions per the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship).
4women - 4women will offer a non-invasive, self-administered HPV test.
AMOpportunities - AMOpportunities is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book U.S. clinical experiences.
Banyan - Banyan is a B2B local food e-commerce platform that makes it easier, cheaper and more efficient for buyers and sellers to transact in local foods by automating repetitive tasks, digitizing cash flows, and making local distribution more efficient.
ClostraBio - ClostraBio is a discovery and preclinical stage pharmaceutical company developing safe, clinically effective therapies for patients whose life-threatening allergies limit their quality of life.
EZZA - EZZA is nail care tailored for modern, professional women.
Lancealot - Lancealot is a marketplace and tool kit to help organizations and individuals connect with freelance video creators and manage their collaborations.
Part Analytics - Part Analytics is a cloud based analytics platform that takes structured, unstructured, public and private data to provide actionable insights for Procurement and Engineering professionals in electronics industry.
PhytSolutions - Phyt Solutions is dedicated to improving human movement and quality of life by providing physical therapists and other movement professionals with products offering variety and efficiency at affordable prices.
SmarterCloud - SmarterCloud’s mission is to enable growth and mature stage enterprises to better control their cloud infrastructure.
SwitchedSource - Switched Source is an early stage start-up commercializing power electronics solutions for utilities.
TAINA - TAINA helps financial institutions comply with tax transparency regulations by digitizing and automatically validating the hundreds of millions of tax-related forms they must process annually saving costs and reducing the risk of fines.
