1776 presented Dubai-based MUrgency with a $50,000 grand prize as this year's winner of the global Challenge Cup startup competition. The mobile platform for emergency response networks was named the winner out of the 65 startups from more than 50 countries that competed all week, a list culled from 3,000 competitors worldwide in a year's worth of pitch competitions.
The three other finalists did not go away empty-handed though. Prima-Temp, Shippify and Toast were each awarded $25,000, while four semi-finalists earned $10,000 each. Portland, Oregon-based semi-finalist NoAppFee won another $10,000 as the audience choice.
MUrgency and the other finalists fit neatly into the social enterprise startup that 1776 has consciously chosen to seek out for investment. Last year's winner, Twiga Fruits, built a platform brings fresh produce from farms to markets in developing areas while 2014 winner HandUp created a digital platform for people to directly give to the homeless and others in need in cities.
Picking companies that are improving people's lives with potential for profit as well is something that 1776 has been talking about since it first opened. Sorting its member companies into broad categories like education, energy, health and smart cities encourages that kind of thinking, as does emphasizing "regulatory hacking," looking for ways to fit new ideas into existing systems and getting them to adapt to the new technology or business model.
"We look for members taking on the biggest problems in the world and finding news ways to solve them," 1776 co-founder Donna Harris told DC Inno in an interview late last year while the Challenge Cup was still picking out finalists. "Entrepreneurship is hard, but the right visionaries can change the world. We wanted this year's [Challenge Festival] to be as global as possible."
That global project has landed 1776 a $7.2 million investment led by an Australian firm and including Steve and Jean Case.
The same thinking applies to the companies that 1776's $12.5 million seed fund has invested in as well. 1776's very first investment with that fund was local energy management and analytics startup Aquicore, which it invested in again recently. 1776 has also invested in Washington, D.C.-based transportation dashboard startup TransitScreen for its $12.5 million seed fund in 2015. And there's up to $1 million in investment by 1776 for all of the companies that competed in the Challenge Festival.
"There's no shortage of problems to be tackled by startups," Harris said. "Geography will not be our barrier."
