Startups including companies in health care, outdoor apparel, sustainability and other areas will be pitching investors as finalists in Bend Venture Conference competitions.
This is the 19th year of the conference that brings hundreds of people to downtown Bend. The event gathers founders, investors and other service providers who hash out deals and make connections. The event itself has investment vehicles that back growth stage and impact companies.
This year’s event will feature speakers Lily Trager, managing director and head of investing with impact at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, and Melanie Strong, founding partner at Next Ventures.
The conference is slate for Oct. 20-21 and tickets are available online.
Here are the Growth Stage finalists:
- Bluebird CX, a Vancouver-based company that created an automated giving platform that send personalized swag to customers quickly.
- Clean Age, a Portland-based company that created gender-neutral personal care products (think deodorants and toothpaste) for teens and pre-teens to establish healthy habits.
- Minnow Technologies, a Seattle-based delivery hub designed to make food delivery more efficient.
- Radious, a Portland-based online marketplace that lets homeowners rent out spare space for folks looking for on-demand workspace.
- Wild Rye, a Sun Valley, Idaho-based women’s outdoor apparel brand for technical mountain apparel.
Typically, growth-stage companies vie for between $100,000 and $2.5 million in investment from the BVC investment vehicle and other partner funds.
Here are the finalists for the Impact competition:
- Canopii, a Portland-based company building autonomous greenhouse farming systems to enable more local food production.
- Ethicann Pharmaceuticals, a Bethesda, Maryland-based biotech company developing cannabinoid-based drug therapies by reformulating approved drugs.
- Photon Marine, a Portland-based company developing an electric outboard motor system and software for commercial boat fleets.
- VitalFlo, a Portland-based company creating a predictive system to forecast expensive patient outcomes for respiratory disease.
In the Early Stage competition startups are competing for at least $30,000 from the Portland Seed Fund. The finalists were selected from a separate pitch competition. Here are the finalists:
- DailyChela.com, a Portland-based digital news, opinion and sports outlet targeting Latino viewers online and on streaming devices like Roku.
- Instinct, a Hillsboro-based wireless sensor network to detect wildfires and other real-time environmental monitoring.
- Osheru, a Bend-based company that created a device to simplify upper eyelid surgery.
- Range Revolution, a Madras-based company that makes sustainable leather luggage.
- TapeDeck, a Tigard-based mobile app that connects people through conversation. This startup won the audience choice award and $3,000 from Washington Trust Bank at the competition that picked the finalists.
