Startup
Incubators 1776 and 1871 to Bring Challenge Cup 2015 to the Windy City
Two of the
world’s foremost incubators are partnering to identify Chicago’s most promising
startups as part of global competition
WASHINGTON,
D.C. AND CHICAGO, IL (September 23, 2014)— Startup
incubators 1776 and 1871 today announced that Chicago will participate as a
host city in Challenge Cup 2015, a global
competition that spans 16 cities in 11 countries to identify the most promising
startups with the best ideas to solve the world’s biggest challenges, on
October 28.
“We’re thrilled to join with 1871
and bring the Challenge Cup to Chicago, a city that has already established
itself as a worldwide hub for compelling startups that are working to tackle
our biggest, most intractable problems,” said 1776 co-founder Donna Harris.
“This competition will not only help Chicago’s most promising startups succeed,
it will further connect the Windy City to a global movement of innovators
interested in solving our biggest problems.”
Challenge Cup participants compete
for $650,000 in prizes in four categories—education, energy, health, and
cities—as well as the chance to connect with mentors, corporate partners,
policymakers, and potential investors.
“1871 is tremendously excited to
bring the Challenge Cup back to our hometown,” said 1871 CEO Howard Tullman.
“Chicago is building companies and startups that are tackling major challenges
and trying to solve real problems. Last year, the Challenge Cup was an
extremely valuable opportunity for dozens of Chicago startups to exchange
ideas, connect with mentors, and impress investors. This year, it’s going to be
even bigger and better.”
Last year, the winner of the
Challenge Cup’s “health” category and one of four finalists was 1871’s own
CancerIQ, a startup that created a suite of applications that allow oncologists
to better collect genetic information from cancer patients and identify
high-risk patients for preventative treatment—greatly simplifying the practice
of genomic medicine.
“It was a great experience for
us,” said Feyi Olopade, CEO of CancerIQ. “We got exposure to a number of
top officials in the administration and in the industry.We had the opportunity
to cross-pollinate ideas and growth-hacking strategies that have been tried and
tested. This was the first time we got to share our updated traction story with
the world and with investors."
In addition to Chicago, Challenge
Cup 2015 will take place at 15 other regional sites, including Washington D.C.,
Sydney, New York City, Tel Aviv, Amman, Santiago, Nairobi, Mumbai, Austin,
Toronto, Boston, Berlin, Dublin, San Francisco, and China. Each city will
produce four regional winners in each of the four categories, with 64 regional
winners chosen to compete in 1776’s Challenge
Festival in May, a weeklong event in Washington, D.C. that
gives these startups an opportunity to pitch investors, connect to new mentors,
meet with policymakers, and compete for prizes and funding.
Additional dates and judges for
the Challenge Cup Competition will be announced in the coming weeks. To power
Challenge Cup 2015, and ensure the best startups and venture partners have a
seat at the table, 1776 has forged partnerships with NEA, the world’s
largest venture capital firm, Revolution, the Case Foundation, Capital
Factory, Rocketspace, Oasis 500, and many more to be announced in the coming
weeks.
Candidates for the Challenge Cup
competition are startups that are compelling, world changing, and highly
scalable, and that aim to make tangible differences in people’s lives, not just
build the hottest new app. Through Challenge Cup, entrepreneurs are not only
connected to the investors and mentors they need to succeed, but corporations
and policymakers in some of the world’s most entrenched industries and
government entities are introduced to these innovators’ fresh ideas that have
the potential to solve big, difficult challenges.
Last year’s inaugural Challenge
Cup was enormously successful. Out of 5,000 applications, 480 startups competed
in 16 cities in nine countries throughout the world. At Challenge Festival, out
of the 64 startups that competed, eight startups were selected to receive
funding from 1776 directly, several others received significant investment from
other funds or partners, and 1776 set up more than 70 individual meetings
between the startups and potential investors, corporate partners and
policymakers .
This year, 1776 is taking the
Challenge Cup to the next level by announcing ChallengeX, a feeder competition
in which startup incubators around the world have the opportunity to host their
own competitions, with the winners automatically entered as finalists into the
nearest Challenge Cup regional competition. This means more cities, more
startups, and more great ideas.Participating ChallengeX cities include Detroit,
New Orleans, and Buenos Aires, with more locations to be announced at a later
date.
“The Challenge Cup is the best
platform out there for sharing innovative, world-changing ideas with the investors
and mentors you need to be successful—and we’re absolutely thrilled to partner
with 1871 to bring the competition to the Windy City,” said 1776 cofounder Evan
Burfield. “And this year, the launch of ChallengeX, a new feeder competition,
allows us to cast our net even wider, giving more startups the opportunity to
present their ideas in front of mentors, judges and investors around the
world.”
In addition to CancerIQ, winners
from last year’s Challenge Cup are already enjoying remarkable success disrupting
and innovating the world’s most entrenched industries, including:
- PlugSurfing, a Berlin-based mobile app that allows
drivers of electric vehicles to quickly locate charging stations and
process payments on their mobile devices—with the dual benefit of making
energy-efficient vehicles more practical for German drivers while reducing
fossil fuel consumption.
- RideScout, a mobile app that pulls together a host
of transportation sources and allows users to quickly plan trips.
RideScout was recently acquired by Daimler after 1776 fueled its early
growth into a startup capable of innovating ride-share technology within
Germany’s highly-regulated transportation sector.
- eduCanon, an online learning environment that
creates and shares interactive video lessons to help teachers, especially
those who are new to the profession, increase student engagement and
improve their ability to plan the next day’s lesson. By helping teachers
succeed early on, eduCanon is enabling a better experience for students
and teachers.
ABOUT 1776
1776 is a global incubator and
seed fund that finds promising startups focused on solving the world’s most
fundamental challenges and helps engineer their success.
Just two years old, 1776 has
helped more than 250 startups grow by vetting their viability and connecting
them to a “swat team” of support, from investors to mentors, government
officials, and institutional market partners that they need to succeed.
1776 focuses on startups in the
most broken, entrenched industries and sectors that impact millions of lives
every day – specifically education, energy, health and cities.
Because solving big challenges in
entrenched industries requires a different approach, 1776 is revolutionizing
the startup landscape. From its hub in Washington, D.C., it is sparking a
global movement of “problem-solving’ startups through its Challenge Cup and Startup Federation, the
premiere network of incubators throughout the world.
By creating a global community of
startups, mentors, partners, and investors, 1776 is proving that its unique
approach to incubation can create a sustained cycle of innovation that connects
existing enterprises, corporations, and government entities to the startups
that are solving the world’s biggest problems.
1776 was founded in February 2013
by Donna Harris, a serial entrepreneur and the former Managing Director of
the Startup America Partnership, and Evan Burfield, founder of
netDecide, a provider of enterprise wealth management solutions, and the
consulting firm Synteractive.
ABOUT 1871
1871 is an entrepreneurial hub for
digital startups. Located in The Merchandise Mart, the 75,000-square-foot
facility provides Chicago startups with programming, access to mentors,
educational resources, potential investors and a community of like-minded
entrepreneurs that help them on their path to building successful businesses.
Recently ranked 9th in the world in the 2014 UBI Index list of
top university-associated business incubators, 1871 has become a global leader
in the entrepreneurial community. 1871 is the flagship project of the
Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center.