In the 21 years since its first iteration, the University of Chicago’s New Venture Challenge has been a launching point for some of Chicago’s biggest tech pillars including Grubhub, Base and Braintree. Graduates from the program have landed more than $4 billion in mergers and exits, and landed more than $575 million in funding, according to the university.
With the 2017 finals just over a week away, the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which hosts the competition, just released its list of 11 finalists.
The contestants run the gamut from healthtech to e-commerce to cloud-based analytics. This year’s slate also includes TAINA, a London-based startup that won the university’s Global New Venture Challenge earlier this year.
Here's a look at the competing startups:
4women offers a non-invasive, self-administered HPV test.
AMOpportunities is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover and book U.S. clinical experiences.
A Polsky Incubator alum, Banyan is a B2B local food e-commerce platform. The company makes it easier, cheaper and more efficient for buyers and sellers to transact in local foods by automating repetitive tasks, digitizing cash flows and making local distribution more efficient.
ClostraBio is a discovery and preclinical-stage pharmaceutical company that develops safe and clinically effective therapies for patients whose life-threatening allergies limit their quality of life. A Polsky I-Corps alum, the company is currently a participant in the UChicago Innovation Fund Spring 2017 cycle.
A Polsky Accelerator alum, EZZA is a nail care startup tailored for modern, professional women.
Lancealot is a marketplace and toolkit that helps organizations and individuals connect with freelance video creators and manage their collaborations.
Part Analytics is a cloud-based analytics platform that takes structured, unstructured, public and private data to provide actionable insights for procurement and engineering professionals in the electronics industry.
Phyt Solutions is dedicated to improving human movement and quality of life by providing physical therapists and other movement professionals with products offering variety and efficiency at affordable prices.
SmarterCloud’s mission is to enable growth and mature stage enterprises to better control their cloud infrastructure.
Switched Source is an early-stage startup commercializing power electronics solutions for utilities.
TAINA helps financial institutions comply with tax transparency regulations by digitizing and automatically validating the hundreds of millions of tax-related forms they must process annually saving costs and reducing the risk of fines. TAINA is from Chicago Booth’s London campus.
Descriptions courtesy of the University of Chicago. Image via Shutterstock.
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