Six startups are getting a cash infusion from economic development group NC IDEA in the form of non-dilutive grants.
The grants total some $300,000.
NC IDEA has awarded over $4.2 million to 104 companies across the state since 2006. The new grants represent the 20th cycle of the twice-a-year program.
“This grant cycle was competitive and had a strong contingent of applicants, making our decisions incredibly difficult,” said Sean O’Leary, interim executive director of NC IDEA. “We were impressed with the pool of companies and so many were deserving of funding. In the end, we were convinced that our grant money would have the most significant impact on our six recipients. We look forward to tracking the progress of our winners and working alongside these companies to become major contributors to our state’s business community.”
The recipients include (Summaries provided by NC IDEA):
- Brand Assurance (Wilmington, NC) – http://brandassurance.co
Brand Assurance helps apartment owners compete with a user-friendly software solution for managing and tracking reviews on review sites and social networks. Developed exclusively for the multifamily apartment industry, Brand Assurance allows apartment communities to turn resident feedback into actionable plans to quickly respond to competition and market demands, increase resident satisfaction and drive revenue. Unlike any other platform or service, Brand Assurance uses customer feedback surveys to proactively build and protect an apartment community’s reputation online.
Twitter: @brand_assurance
Facebook: https://twitter.com/brand_assurance
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brand-assurance
- Rheomics (Chapel Hill, NC) – http://www.rheomics.com
Rheomics develops tools to improve sensitivity of blood diagnostics. With the company’s patented ASAP technology, their products can efficiently and affordably process much larger volumes of blood.
Twitter: @rheomics
- Brim (Durham, NC) – http://br.im
Brim is the world’s first productivity network, connecting people in remote locations to collaborate on files, hold online video conferences and webinars, manage tasks, share and organize data. Brim combines communication, productivity and storage technologies in an all-in-one platform for temporary and persistent collaborations.
Twitter: @brim_team
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brimteam
- MV Trak (formerly Imvere) (Chapel Hill, NC)
With about 25 million sports-related concussions going undetected every year, MV Trak measures head impact and rotation with 96.6% accuracy to give medical professionals and athletic trainers reliable, objective data to detect which athletes need to be further evaluated for concussion symptoms. MV Trak is an in-ear wearable technology, for both helmeted and non-helmeted athletes, allowing good decisions to be made about each athlete’s brain health.
- SeaChange Technologies (Raleigh, NC) – www.seachangetechnologies.com
SeaChange Technologies is developing an innovative technology for water purification and desalination. The company’s systems address the key drawbacks of existing desalination technologies, including intensive energy requirements, polluting brine wastewater byproduct and high maintenance costs.
Twitter: @seachangewater
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeaChangeTechnologies/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seachange-technologies
- Tom & Jenny’s Candy
Founded by a dentist and her husband in their home kitchen, Tom & Jenny’s developed a new kind of candy that’s both delicious and great for teeth. The company’s unique formula and process results in an all-natural, sugar-free caramel that is preferred over sugar caramels by 60% of blind taste-testers and reduces cavity-causing bacteria on teeth. Tom & Jenny’s candies are distributed online and through local NC retailers and healthcare offices.
Website: http://www.tomandjennys.com.
