My Art Cache, an online matching platform for fine art industry professionals, dealers and buyers, won first place and $365,000 at the University of Chicago’s New Venture Challenge on Thursday.
The student startup was one of 12 that received portions of a $850,000 cash prize pool, made up of funds from the college and various investors. The pool was originally $420,000, but during deliberations, several judges decided to add to it, making it the highest cash prize pool ever given at the challenge.
Last year, judges similarly added to the cash pool after seeing the startups’ pitches, increasing it from $400,000 to $700,000.
“Next year, we’ll try for $1 million,” joked Steve Kaplan, a UChicago professor of entrepreneurship and finance, and the faculty director of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
The $365,000 check that My Art Cache received is the largest check ever given to a single startup at the NVC. Founded last year, the startup has built a dealer-to-dealer platform that allows art dealers and art professionals to sell their works privately online. The startup is currently testing its platform with a select beta group right now, but plans to officially launch later this year.
GGLeagues, an esports startup that hosts competitive recreational leagues and live, in-person gaming events, came in second place, winning $220,000.
In third place came Aegis.AI, a software company that automatically identifies guns and public safety threats in security camera feeds to notify security and law enforcement. The startup won $155,000.
And FivetoNine, an employee engagement startup, came in fourth place, receiving $30,000. The other eight startups each took home $10,000.
Typically, only 10 startups are chosen to compete in the finals, but the college made an exception this year, saying that the quality of the companies this year made it hard to narrow down. The 12 finalists were narrowed down from more than 90 entries.
“This was an unbelievable year,” Kaplan said at the event. “It was just too hard to choose.”
The NVC, which began in 1997 with just $25,000 in prizes, is now ranked as one of the top accelerator programs in the U.S. Its winners have included top Chicago companies like SimpleMills, Grubhub and Braintree. Other notable Chicago startups that have participated in the NVC include InContext Solutions and Tovala.
The competition is also just one of several pitch events UChicago hosts for its student entrepreneurs. Earlier this month, it hosted the Social New Venture Challenge, which aims to coach and award student entrepreneurs whose company has a social mission behind it.
Debate It Forward, a startup that wants to use debates to educate students who are frequently overlooked by academically rigorous extracurricular programs, won the SNVC, taking home $60,000.
In March, PODU, which aims to be one of the first podcasting platforms for Arabic speakers, won first place and $15,000 at UChicago’s College New Venture Challenge, a pitch competition for undergraduates.
