CareAcademy, a Boston-based startup providing online training to caregivers for seniors, won the $5,000 cash prize and $8,000 in computer equipment from Lenovo at the Google for Entrepreneurs Pitch Day Exchange Program for Black Founders at The American Underground at Main on Friday.

Five out of the 12 startups presenting were offered a $5,000 convertible note from Backstage Capital, a $5 million Los Angeles-based firm that invests in “overachieving, underrepresented founders,” specifically people of color and women. Arlan Hamilton, founder and managing partner, one of the panel judges at the event, made the offer.

Those five are:

  • CareAcademy, (http://careacademy.com/) which also closed a $150,000 bridge round recently and addresses the 84 billion industry that will need 5 million more caregives as the population ages. Founder Helen Adeosun presented.
  • Philladelphia-based TresseNoir, (https://www.tressenoire.com/) which offers a beauty booking app for on-demand, on-location hair and makeup services for women of color.;
  • New Orleans-based Instafunds, (http://www.instafunds.co/) which provides some banking services for the unbanked and underbanked and teaches financial literacy;
  • Ceek, https://ceek.com, a Miami-Beach Florida virtual reality content and device company with a platform neutral technology for self generating, managing and distributing Virtual Reality experiences. CEEK enables anyone htteven those with no developer experience, to create and distribute VR.
  • And Bandwagon (http://bandwagonfanclub.com)(Greenville, SC): A sports tech company that utilizes data to help fans optimize their game day experience while helping teams gain transparency into attendance.

CEEK VR founder and CEO Mary Spio grew up in Ghana and was 16 when her parents saved up enough money to send her to the United States. Her first job was at a McDonald’s. Since then, she has served in the Air Force and created content and technologies for global titans such as Boeing, Lucas Films, Universal Music, Miami Children’s Hospital, and Microsoft Xbox.

Three Triangle startups presented

The three Triangle-based startups finished out of the running, although not without interest. They were

  • BlindedHR (http://www.blindedhr.com/) of Raleigh, which helps companies form a talented, creative and inclusive workforce from use of inclusive unbiased recruiting measures. BlindedHR seeks to eliminate human error in the early stages of the candidate review process.
  • RantRoom, (http://www.rantroom.co/blog/) Durham, A social engagement platform which allows users to create public and/or private rooms based on specific topics, and specifically aimed at sports initially. The founder was asked, “Do we really need another social network?” and his answer seemed a little vague to the panelist.
  • RewardStock, (https://www.rewardstock.com/) also Durham-based, creates plans for the best way to travel with frequent flier miles, credit card rewards and hotel points instead of cash. a free website that creates plans for the best way to travel with frequent flier miles, credit card rewards and hotel points instead of cash. The founder regaled the audience with money saving tales, such as flying his wife’s parents to their daughter’s wedding for $6 each.

The other three presenting companies were:

  • Sandbox Commerce (https://www.sandboxcommerce.com/)of Austin, Texas, which allows retailers who are selling products online to build, deploy and maintain a mobile application that increases sales on iPhone and Android devices. It lets even people with no coding build the app in minutes using its platform.
  • Little Bird HR (http://littlebird.hr/)of New York City is the first HR software and employee benefits platform purpose-built for K-12 schools. It is aimed at charter schools initially and reduces the cost of providing benefits.
  • Castar (http://www.castarapp.com/) of Los Angeles, is An app-based community for creatives, talent, artists and entrepreneurs to connect, collaborate, and find opportunities.

The 12 startups, selected from 170 applicants, presented strict two-minute pitches followed by two more minutes of questions and answers from the judges.

The judges were: Arlan Hamilton of Backstage Capital; Thom Ruhe of NC Idea; Ryan Smith of Los Angeles-based Magic Johnson Enterprises; and Marlon Nichols of Palo Alto, CA-based Cross Culture Ventures, all seed or early stage funds.

Cross Culture’s Nichols told WRAL TechWire the firm is targeting a $50 million fund in its final close and studies trends worldwide to guide its investing. It invested in nine companies so far, none in NC, although Nichols said he hopes that will change soon.