TEDCO awarded $750,000 to six finalists for its first-ever Incubator Challenge, a competition created to identify and reward the best ideas for supporting and growing technology companies in Maryland. The finalists shared their ideas with attendees of the 7th Annual Entrepreneur Expo and Stem Cell Symposium on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at the Hilton Baltimore during a morning pitch session. The winners were announced that evening during the reception, which was attended by Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh.
The Incubation Challenge team winners, who will receive $125,000 each, are:
- The LaunchPort Accelerator, a collaboration between The MVR Company and The Quinn Group
- Anchor Ventures, a collaboration among Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, UM Ventures and the University System of Maryland
- A collaboration between the Eastern Shore Entrepreneurship Center’s F³ Tech Program and Bethesda Green’s Be Green Hub
- FounderTrac, a collaboration among Launch! Annapolis, MCVC partners, Annapolis Ventures, and The Maryland Tech Council
- A collaboration among Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (MTECH), Inncuvate Consulting, Bowie Business Innovation Center, Maryland Intellectual Property and Legal Resource Center, Prince George’s Community College, and Northrop Grumman
- TrajectoryNext, a collaboration among Betamore, UM Ventures, the Grid, Fast Forward, Johns Hopkins Tech Ventures, and University of Maryland, Baltimore
“The initial Incubation Challenge award amount was $300,000,” said TEDCO President John Wasilisin. “The innovative and creative strength of our six finalists prompted us to ask our board to increase funding in order to fund all six of these transformational start-up initiatives.”
For more information about next year’s Entrepreneur Expo and Stem Cell Symposium, please contact Tammi Thomas at tthomas@tedco.md.