The Sacramento Kings Capitalize contest has narrowed the field to the "elite eight" startup companies vying for the $10,000 top cash prize in a March Madness-inspired competition.
In the pitch competition's seventh year, the Kings invited startups based within 75 miles of Sacramento to apply for Capitalize, which culminates in the announcement of a winner at Golden 1 Center during a home basketball game April 3.
The elite eight, in alphabetical order, are:
- Buzly, a Sacramento-based college communications app.
- EV Life, a Folsom-based company that helps consumers buy electric vehicles.
- Eyerate, an Elk Grove developer of a customer communication platform.
- Foodom, a Folsom-based business that coordinates private chefs to cook family meals in homes.
- Matrubials, a Davis-based company developing antibacterial therapeutics.
- Neural Lab Inc., an El Dorado Hills-based developer of a touchless touchscreen.
- RevShopp Inc., a Sacramento developer of body shape intelligence software for the apparel industry.
- Tesuji, a Nevada City mobile game app developer.
The Kings got 140 applicants in the contest this year.
The eight companies get coaching at a pitch workshop on March 15 in preparation for a live 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 Capitalize winners include parking technology company Japa Inc., head trauma evaluation technology developer Protxx and custom-delivered nutritional meal company Trifecta Inc., which has gone on to raise tens of millions of dollars and has hundreds of employees.
Four of the companies that made the elite eight in Kings Capitalize competition also made it to the “select 16” in the inaugural Pitch Elk Grove contest, which is also running this month for a chance at a $10,000 cash top prize. Those overlapping companies include EV Life, EyeRate, Matrubials and Neural Lab.
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's Sacramento Urban Technology Lab.
In addition to the cash prize, the winning company in Capitalize gets 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.
