The Sacramento Kings Capitalize contest, which offers at $10,000 cash prize to the winning technology startup company, has narrowed the field from 140 applicants to a “select 16” in the March Madness-inspired competition.
This is the seventh year for the contest, where the Sacramento Kings invite startups based within 75 miles of Sacramento to apply for the pitch competition, which this year culminates with a crowdsourced vote at Golden 1 Center during a basketball game April 3.
The contest this year saw 140 companies apply, said Kings spokeswoman Kari Ida, via email.
The contestants will compete over the next five weeks to determine a winner. The competition begins in earnest this week, as the 16 companies make pitches before judges on Thursday and Friday. Eight companies will emerge, and they will receive coaching at a pitch workshop on March 15 in preparation for a pitch day March 21. The four that emerge from that get to make videos, which will be posted on the Kings Capitalize website for Twitter voting. The winner will be decided by Twitter votes from fans alongside the judges, and the video will be presented during the Kings home game against the Golden State Warriors.
Previous local winners include parking technology company Japa Inc., head trauma evaluation technology developer Protxx and custom-delivered nutritional meal company Trifecta Inc.
The Capitalize contest this year is being presented by Kings partners Dialpad, a communications technology company based in San Francisco; 3STEPS4Ward, a marketing company based in San Ramon; and the city of Sacramento’s Sacramento Urban Technology Lab.
In addition to the $10,000 cash prize, the wining company will get three years of access to Dialpad communication services and six months of free marketing services from 3STEPS4WARD. The Kings are also awarding $3,000 to second place and $1,500 to third place this year.
The “select 16” include:
• Advance Ag, of the Bay Area
• Bins Storage of California
• BrainScanology Inc. of Berkeley
• Buzly of Sacramento
• Daycare Owl of Dublin
• EV Life of Folsom
• EyeRate of Elk Grove
• Foodom of Folsom
• Forward Forestry of Rocklin
• KidneyPal or Roseville
• Matrubials Inc. of Davis
• Neural Lab Inc. of El Dorado Hills
• Nytch Inc. of Woodland
• RevShopp Inc. of Sacramento.
• Tesuji Games Inc. of Nevada City
