Charlotte Venture Challenge names finalists

April 7, 2014
Categories: Research Tags: Academic Affairs, PORTAL, Research, Scholarship and Academic Life

The Charlotte Venture Challenge (CVC) will showcase 39 finalists selected from more than 100 startup competitors located throughout the Southeastern United States. These contenders will be introduced to investors, corporate executives and the business community at the CVC finals, Thursday, May 1.

According to organizers, the 2014 Charlotte Venture 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 versus 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.

“Based on feedback from the corporate and investor community, we are bringing more innovation-driven startups to the finals and providing more time for engagement,” said Devin Collins of UNC Charlotte, the founding organization of the competition. “We’re bringing the finals event back to University City to UNC Charlotte’s new PORTAL Building, and we’re looking forward to acquainting the investors, corporate innovation executives and high-growth startup finalists. It promises to be an exciting event.”

The CVC finals will be at 1 p.m., Thursday, May 1, at PORTAL; it will include a reception and awards ceremony where teams will showcase their ventures.

The event is open to the public and cost to attend is $99.

This year’s Charlotte Venture Challenge finalists include:

  • Health IT and Biotechnology – Bioimpedance Lab (Charlotte), eosNANO (Charlotte), NanoOncology (Chapel Hill), PainBlox (Charlotte), VRM Labs (Easley, S.C.)
  • IT and Informatics – Ecomdash (Charlotte), elpis technologies (Raleigh), HuddleHR (Columbia, S.C.), SnapYeti (Raleigh), DATALAKES (Charlotte), PRSONAS (Durham), Rely-Ability (Charlotte)
  • New Energy and High Technology – Clodico (Oak Ridge, Tenn.), Koyr (Charlotte), OPTONIKS (Charlotte), Sustainable Ethanol Technologies (Charlotte), CetoTech (Charlotte)
  • Consumer Products and Services – Metis (Greensboro), PhoodE (Charlottesville, Va.), Podanize (Charlotte), Viddlz (Charlotte), Video Collaboratory (Charlotte), White Stagg (Charlotte), ProctorFree (Huntersville)
  • Graduate Student Ventures – ephRemedies (N.C. 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 (N.C. State), Ugly Duckling Games (Central Piedmont Community College), BioWorks (UNC Charlotte), HANDYKAP (Emory University), Redwire Logic (UNC Charlotte), Vybe Sunglasses (N.C. State)

Register to attend the challenge finals online. On-site registration begins at noon, May 1.