NC IDEA is awarding $250,000 in grants, $50,000 each to five North Carolina startups located throughout the state in Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Morrisville, and Morehead City.

The following five grant recipients were chosen after a four-month application and selection process that drew 142 applications from across the state:

Allstacks – Raleigh, NC

Allstacks makes it easy for companies to onboard and offboard their employees in just a couple of clicks by managing all of their SaaS productivity apps. Learn more at www.allstacks.com.

Ampogee (formerly Catalant) – Greensboro, NC

Ampogee (formally known as Catalant) is a technology company helps manufacturers improve their performance. Ampogee sells a performance management SaaS solution that actively engages team members and leaders in their individual success, as well as organizational success. Learn more at www.ampogee.com.

Decision Point Informatics – Winston-Salem, NC

Decision Point Informatics is a human informatics company that creates validated clinical decision pathways that integrate with Electronic Health Records.Its first product, HEART Pathway, has shown a yearly savings of over $3.5 million in unnecessary healthcare spending in one hospital system alone. www.decisionpointinformatics.com.

Orchid Gene – Morrisville, NC

Orchid Gene is a high-tech floriculture startup that produces completely maintenance free miniature flowering plant terrariums. Through the company’s technology, a superior gel medium replaces soil to eliminate plant maintenance and manipulates flowering plant characteristics such as size, bloom longevity and rate of re-bloom. www.orchidgene.com.

Planktos Instruments – Morehead City, NC

Planktos Instruments builds autonomous drifters for river science. The company’s innovative drifter design simplifies water monitoring and strengthens water quality assessment. www.planktosinstruments.com.

“This flight of grant recipients represents one of the strongest and most geographically diverse cohorts in the history of our organization,” said Thom Ruhe, President and CEO of NC IDEA. “It may be premature to say we are seeing a trend in more competitive applications, but it is encouraging that our job is getting harder,” concluded Ruhe.

Since its inception in 2006, NC IDEA’s seed grant program has awarded over $4.75 million to 114 companies across the state, with these most recent awards being the 22nd cycle of the program.