The application process has opened for UpTech, a super business accelerator committed to funding 50 of the best and brightest early-stage informatics companies from the United States and abroad.
UpTech will invest up to $100,000 into each of the 50 winning startup companies that demonstrate their commercial potential through an application and review process. UpTech will also provide each business with six months of free, premium riverfront office space with a view of the Cincinnati skyline, along with essential business support from financial, law, accounting, and marketing/public relations firms.
More information and an entry application for UpTech can be found at http://www.uptechideas.org. The first round applications are due by March 9, and the winners will be announced in mid-April 2012.
“We are pleased to announce that the UpTech application process has begun,” said UpTech CoFounder Adam Caswell. “UpTech has the tools, expertise and facilities to foster the next great generation of innovators and leaders in the growing field of informatics.”
In addition to funding, support and office space, the UpTech winners will also receive support from faculty, staff and graduate assistants and two student interns per company from Northern Kentucky University’s College of Informatics along with on-campus informatics labs and facilities for collaboration, events, and seminars.
The UpTech selection process will consist of five rounds of submissions, with each round having 10 companies as winners. The rounds will be completed over the next three to five years, with a total of 50 startups winning a portion of the overall $5 million in equity investment. A panel of national informatics, futurists, business and investment experts from leading companies such as CBS, Cisco, Dell, Procter & Gamble, SAP, Scripps, and Summus Software will serve as the contest judges.
Winners will be determined through an online application and review process, which will look at seed-level ideas to support five sectors of informatics: health information technology, cloud computing virtualization, business analytics, digital media, and cyber security.
