A Peoria-based education-as-a-service startup will be pitching its company to industry experts, investors and a live audience at the South by Southwest EDU 2023 Launch Startup Competition.
Promineo Tech, which partners with community colleges and universities to provide affordable coding boot camps, is among seven finalists selected to pitch in the competition, held March 7.
It will be the company's first time pitching at the event, which gives entrepreneurs a platform for feedback, investment, partnerships and exposure for their early-stage startups.
“I’m excited to get on stage, share what we are doing and our mission with more of the world,” Promineo Tech founder and CEO Nick Suwyn said.
Suwyn founded Promineo Tech in 2018 as a school designed to make education in software development and other related technologies accessible and affordable.
In 2020, Promineo Tech pivoted to become a “turnkey” coding boot camp service provider for colleges, meaning it provides a suite of services that include marketing, enrollment, curriculum and instruction.
“We are looking at how education is delivered and finding areas to improve efficiency of that delivery, so we can maintain quality, decrease overhead and pass along savings to students,” Suwyn said.
The Business Journal previously reported that Promineo Tech in 2021 raised $900,000 in capital in a round led by a local investor with participation from other investors outside of the state.
Since then, the company has partnered with more than 40 colleges to provide its boot camp to students nationwide. It has 38 employees.
“Last year, we grew (revenue) by 300%,” Suwyn said. “We’re expanding rapidly in different colleges across the U.S. and Canada.”
Suwyn did not disclose specifics on the company’s annual revenue.
In addition to the SXSW EDU 2023 Launch Competition, Promineo Tech was also recently named a finalist for Venture Madness, the longest-running venture capital and pitch competition in Arizona.
The 2023 Venture Madness Conference and Expo will be held April 12-13 at the Sheraton Downtown Phoenix.
Finalists for the SXSW EDU 2023 Launch Competition will be coached by Catherine Eng, co-founder and CTO of OurWorlds, Inc.; Riyaz Gayasaddin, vice president of program and talent at Camelback Ventures; and 2021 Launch winner Amrutha Vasan, COO and co-founder of Inspirit Learning, Inc., according to a news release.
Startups will be judged by a panel that includes Shalinee Sharma, CEO and co-founder of Zearn; Frances Messano, CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund; and Tequilla Brownie, CEO of TNTP.
Suwyn said he’s looking forward to putting Peoria on the map at the SXSW competition.
“I’m constantly impressed by how much is going on in Arizona,” he said. “Our ecosystem is exploding and there’s so many amazing startups and companies doing some really cool things.”
Finalists for the SXSW EDU 2023 Launch Competition include:
- Promineo Tech, Peoria
- EduOpenings, St. Louis, Missouri
- Kide Science, Helsinki, Finland
- Robotical, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Tilli, Sri Lanka
- Koalluh, Atlanta, Georgia
- Equmenopolis, Inc., Tokyo, Japan
