CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Charlotte Venture Challenge will showcase 39 finalists selected from more than 100 startup competitors in the Southeast and introduce these emerging companies to investors, corporate executives and the business community on May 1.
The 2014 challenge has the largest number of entries than any other year and is poised to draw the most corporate community engagement to date.
The competition winners will be decided by an investor vs. corporate customer showdown.
Competition categories include consumer products and services, life sciences and biotechnology, IT and informatics, new energy and high tech, undergraduate student ventures and graduate student ventures teams. Finalists will present their businesses and answer questions from panels of investors and corporate executives and a winner will be chosen by each panel.
The Charlotte Venture Challenge is organized by UNC Charlotte’s Charlotte Research Institute and the university’s business incubator, Ventureprise. It targets early-stage entrepreneurial companies in six categories: new energy and high-tech; IT and informatics; health IT and biotech sciences; consumer products and services; student undergraduate ventures; and student graduate ventures.
This year’s finalist include:
Health IT and Biotechnology
Bioimpedance Lab (Charlotte, NC), eosNANO (Charlotte, NC), NanoOncology (Chapel Hill, NC), PainBlox (Charlotte, NC), VRM Labs (Easley, SC)
IT and Informatics
Ecomdash (Charlotte, NC), elpis technologies (Raleigh,NC), HuddleHR (Columbia, SC), SnapYeti (Raleigh, NC), DATALAKES (Charlotte,NC), PRSONAS (Durham, NC), Rely-Ability (Charlotte, NC)
New Energy and High Technology
Clodico (Oak Ridge, TN), Koyr (Charlotte, NC), OPTONIKS (Charlotte, NC), Sustainable Ethanol Technologies (Charlotte, NC), CetoTech (Charlotte, NC)
Consumer Products and Services
Metis (Greensboro, NC), PhoodE (Charlottesville, VA), Podanize (Charlotte, NC), Viddlz (Charlotte, NC), Video Collaboratory (Charlotte, NC), White Stagg (Charlotte, NC), ProctorFree (Huntersville, NC)
Graduate Student Ventures
ephRemedies (NC State), FlexBlocCo (UNC Charlotte), LAMARCA (University of Virginia), NANOpkg (UNC Charlotte), Relish (University of Virginia)
Undergraduate Student Ventures
Clutch Gaming Solutions (UNC Charlotte), Fanaticmasks (Lenoir-Rhyne University), OnCahoots (Davidson College), Tee-Pa (Pfeiffer University), Track2Quit (NC State), Ugly Duckling Games (Central Piedmont Community College), BioWorks (UNC Charlotte), HANDYKAP (Emory University), Redwire Logic (UNC Charlotte), Vybe Sunglasses (NC State)
The finals will be held at 1 p.m. on May 1 at UNC Charlotte’s PORTAL building.
