After months of preparation, 1776 is just days away from launching its global Challenge Cup competition with the D.C. Region Challenge Cup event next Tuesday. The Cup, which will last seven months and travel to 16 cities, such as Moscow and Cape Town, all over the world, will begin with pitches from D.C.'s best startups in the fields of Education, Energy, Health Care and Smart Cities. The application process for D.C. startups was open for a few months until last Friday, and finally those regional finalists have been announced. Here they are:
Education 1. Bright Bot - Mobile learning analytics platform that connects to mobile apps through API / SDK. Bright Bot-enabled apps allow teachers to monitor student activity on mobile devices and gather data on student progress towards mastery of common core standards 2. eduCanon - Online learning environment to build and share interactive video lessons made by teachers for their students 3. CollegeAppz - TurboTax for College Admissions; college readiness platform built to maximize user data for better matches for high school students and improved leads for universities 4. TurMS - Online alumni platform for higher education institutions that incentivizes alumni to donate money to institutions 5. Omninox Publishing - Make highly interactive digital study guides for various school subjects at college and AP high school level 6. yourClass - Platform for virtual classrooms with live classes and archives
Energy 1. E-Mow - Grass-powered robot mower that uses biomass energy in grass to power itself 2. Hilltop Energy Partners - Cleantech-enabled building performance optimization; optimizes building performance through energy efficiency auditing, upgrades, building usage analytics, and distributed generation retrofits 3. Nettadonna - Online market place for electronic components sourced without conflict 4. WattB - Platform for comparing electricity plans that are accessible for individuals 5. Ethical Electric – Energy company that powers as many American homes and businesses as possible with 100% clean energy from local, renewable sources like wind and solar 6. Skyfarm – Develops, finances, builds, and operates hydroponic rooftop farms to produce sustainability grown fruits and vegetables grown via contract with local, established organic farmers 7. Sunnovations– Solar water heating technology for residential and small commercial applications 8. Influent - Miniature fans and pumps (aka fluid movers) that can provide higher performance in much smaller sizes and at significantly lower cost for diversity of products and applications including portable medical devices, micro fuel cells, HBLED lamps and electronics cooling for consumer, computing and military products
Health 1. SpeSo Health - Tool that uses data and statistics to measure expertise in rare and complex conditions; helps connect patients with rare and complex conditions and their supporters to best possible medical expertise 2. Kinergy Health - Simplified care mgmt with technology and care navigator model 3. Dorsata, Inc. - Platform gives clinicians ability to build evidence-based pathways and guidelines collaboratively 4. 1EQ - Consumer facing digital health platform that leverages both genetics and lifestyle info to produce health picture and actionable items for users to live better and healthier 5. ChronoKair - Smartphone & tablet app that provides comprehensive and visual summary of patient’s hospital course and / or treatment record as well as projected trajectory on one screen using real-time objective data in easily consumable design; enables less errors during patient hand-off b/w healthcare parties 6. Infield Health - Personal health coach; mobile platform, HealthySteps, sends a once-a-day reminder to help patients get better, faster 7. Open Cancer Network - Big data analytics platform enabling identification of unusual patterns causing chronic diseases such as cancer 8. AuditBucket - Data repository that finds and displays relationships based on any factor, and can show directionality and intensity of connections, providing basis for performing deep dives into finding operational efficiencies, outliers, and more; can solve two big problems in healthcare: finding fraudulent billing, evidence-based medicine
Smart Cities 1. RideScout - Smartphone app that aggregates all ground transportation options around a user in real time 2. Ostendio - Virtual cloud-based information security mgmt for small and medium sized businesses. Platform helps businesses / their people understand what they need to do to become compliant, manages process of becoming compliant, and maintains demonstrable audit trail of compliance 3. Greenease - Connects customers to restaurants that source from local farms 4. SurveySnap - Site-survey collaboration software for Architecture, Engineering and Construction industries. Enables to take photos, notes, sketches, audio/video and "Smart-Pin" them to specific areas of floor plan while walking through building; portfolio of all projects are backed up in cloud and are accessible on any device 5. Spend Consciously - By scanning bar code, consumers can instantly determine whether what they are buying matches their individual values 6. Phone2Action - Mobile and web tools that help non-profits, advocacy groups, and trade associations connect supporters with elected officials to win grassroots campaigns 7. NeXt - Windshield transparent LED display that integrates with your smartphone 8. N-1-1 - Mobile app to help people in emergencies by allowing users to alert nearby off-duty EMTs, medical personnel, and other responders who can quickly provide aid 9. TransitLabs (to be invited) - Robust web and mobile software platform that provides innovative one-stop solution for transit data mgmt; tools enable to report NTD data to FTA in most accurate and cost-effective way
And there you have it, the 31 companies invited to compete in the first ever D.C. regional of the first ever 1776 Challenge Cup. Best of luck to those representing the Washington area in the global competition. Do us well!
