Chicago startups tackling big issues in education, energy, health, and city innovation will compete next week for a chance to win $650,000 in prizes at D.C. incubator 1776’s Challenge Festival in May.
On Oct. 29, 1871 will host Chicago's regional competition for 1776's Challenge Cup 2015, which looks to find startups with fresh ideas that have the potential to solve difficult challenges. Companies will also get a chance to meet potential investors, mentors, corporate partners and policymakers throughout the challenge. Chicago's winners will go on to face regional winners from D.C., Sydney, New York City, Tel Aviv, Amman, Santiago, Nairobi, Mumbai, Austin, Toronto, Boston, Berlin, Dublin, San Francisco and China in May.
Here are the Chicago participants in the Challenge Cup 2015:
Education:
ClassKick: A tablet platform where students complete assignments and get immediate help from their instructor and classmates.
Demibooks: An application for students and teachers to create and share interactive story apps, games, and class lessons directly on the iPad.
Imua: Imua facilitates mentoring programs by providing a management and support tool that enables organizations to foster an online community and collaboratively work toward a common goal.
Infiniteach: Infiniteach provides a comprehensive learning platform to help individuals with autism develop academic, social, communication and daily living skills.
SchoolRush: SchoolRush helps schools and teachers communicate timely and relevant information to parents instantly through an easy-to-use mobile app.
Smarty Pants Yoga: Smarty Pants Yoga is an after-school and in-school intervention program that uses storybooks, yoga and crafts to build strong female leaders at the elementary-school level.
Energy:
Effortless Energy: Effortless Energy provides free, energy-efficient home appliance upgrades at no cost to customers and then shares in the energy savings created.
Totus Power: Totus Power develops portable battery packs for schools in developing countries by reusing lithium ion batteries from electric vehicles to provide more consistent power and reduce waste.
SmarterShade: SmarterShade makes smartglass simple and affordable. A user can make any window can go from clear to completely dark; with various shades in between. This results in a significant energy reduction by blocking out unwanted solar heat.
Health:
AHA SmartMarket: AHA SmartMarket is a platform that connects health care leaders with their peers and vendors to enable decision-makers to more effectively move their hospitals and health care networks forward.
Double Helix Group: Double Helix Group creates engaging telehealth solutions for patients and doctors. Its flagship product, Helix Health & Wellness, provides “primary care support” for patients in between regular visits with their doctor.
FitnessCubed: FitnessCubed builds healthier office spaces with its Bluetooth-enabled fitness machines, allowing employees to stay fit while they sit at work and track their progress and exercise information.
Janus Choice: Janus Choice empowers patients to make educated decisions when choosing their extended care provider and contribute to length of stay reduction using mobile technology.
Lumii Health: Lumii Health provides small- to mid-sized businesses with robust health insurance analysis that allows them to make more informed decisions and bring transparency to the market.
MedMatch: MedMatch provides software that streamlines the hiring process for both the medical professional who’s looking for a job and for the medical facility who needs a position filled.
MedPAC Technologies: MedPAC is a software-as-a-service technology company that provides easy document creation when a patient is seen by a physician, resolving costly inefficiencies for long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) providers and facilities.
Project SAM: Project SAM (System Accounting Management) is an inventory management platform targeted at multinational non-governmental organizations operating health clinics in developing countries.
RaPID medical technologies: RaPID Medical Technologies has developed a pattern matching technology and work flow optimization to eliminate retained surgical items such as sponges and needles inadvertently left behind in patients during surgery.
Sisu Global Health: Sisu Global Health is a medical technology company tailored to Sub-Saharan Africa. Sisu’s lead product in its portfolio is the Hemafuse, a transfusion device for salvaging a patient’s blood during an internal hemorrhage.
TapGenes: TapGenes helps families collect, preserve and share their health information and have the right information immediately available about a loved one.
Team Interval: Team Interval provides a software to digitalize how schools manage the treatment of athletes and their injuries. Their internal messaging system immediately notifies parents, coaches and administration of an athlete’s injury, keeping everyone up to date.
Cities:
AboutOurWork: AboutOurWork is a small business connection network that uses data and algorithms to make B2B connections between its members at the right time to help them do more business together.
Basic Transfer: Basic Transfer is a mobile money platform that connects ultra poor women living in developing countries with cash transfers and technology via mobile contributions.
Greenfii: Greenfii utilizes smart technology to maximize food efficiency in the home by integrating with Instacart and Peapod to deliver fresh food, determine if food is safe to eat and suggest recipes based off of what’s in your refrigerator.
Guard Llama: Guard Llama provides its users with a handheld remote and accompanying mobile application to immediately and discretely send their exact location to police, minimizing the time and danger involved with a traditional 911 call.
Lihtec: Lihtec is a crowdfunding platform for affordable housing development that connects accredited impact investors directly with affordable housing projects in their community.
Mercier-Jones: Mercier-Jones is bridging the gap between concept and production vehicles by manufacturing vehicles true to their industrial design and innovation concepts, starting with the personal hovercraft.
PARKNAV: Parknav helps drivers find street parking in real time, reducing the time spent searching for available parking in today’s metropolitan areas.
sMap: sMap is an interactive online mapping tool that allows users to individually or collectively create maps in a common map gallery and create a map of “their” community in a gallery that can be viewed by fellow community members.
Spare to Share- Spare to Share is a private sharing and community network for residential buildings, enhancing the community feeling and increasing meaningful collaboration.
PeerRealty: a marketplace where investors can participate in high-quality real estate deals with the most reputable developers for a fraction of the traditional barriers to entry, specifically, money and time.
Image via InTheCapital
