“Baltimore City is a leader in innovation and entrepreneurship and AccelerateBaltimore continues to strengthen our reputation as a great place to start and grow a business.” Baltimore Mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
Baltimore, MD (PRWEB) January 08, 2015
The ETC (Emerging Technology Centers) http://www.etcbaltimore.com, Baltimore City’s award-winning technology innovation centers, announced today that the following six companies have been accepted into the AccelerateBaltimore™ 2015 program:
- Baggio- A smart bag system that uses sensor technology to alert users of missing and low quantity items within a bag as well as the bag’s location;
- Brinkbit- An HTML-5 universal distribution platform that is the quickest path between developers and gamers;
- Full Society- A mobile restaurant bill‐pay app that enables users to instantly pay, split, tip, and give back to society without ever waiting for the bill;
- Promotious- A web app solution that notifies surrounding customers of promotions using iBeacon technology;
- ShapeU- A web platform and app that matches users with professional trainers based on availability, fitness goals, and skill levels;
- Visable- A disruptive, next‐generation recruiting tool that creates significantly improved hiring outcomes by matching students’ skillsets with employer job requirements.
“We were thrilled to receive many high-quality applications in just over two months in such a competitive market,” said Deb Tillett, ETC’s President. “Selections were based on technical competence, feasibility, quality of the management team, scalability, competition, and whether $25K and the program will result in an MVP launch in just 13 weeks,” she concluded. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake added that “Baltimore City is a leader in innovation and entrepreneurship and AccelerateBaltimore continues to strengthen our reputation as a great place to start and grow a business.”
Orientation will take place on January 12, 2015. There, the companies’ teams will meet one another and acquaint themselves with the program, their mentors, advisors, and ETC’s Executives in Residence (EIR). The program will officially kick off with a reception on January 22, 2015.
This is the fourth year in which the ETC will be running AccelerateBaltimore, Maryland’s first business accelerator. With funding supplied by The Abell Foundation, AccelerateBaltimore aims to close the gap between innovative ideas and the ability to get to market quickly. Robert Embry, President of The Abell Foundation has been a big supporter from the beginning, “Cultivating top talent and promoting technology innovation are the hallmarks of AccelerateBaltimore. It is a testament to the program that the competition has helped draw attention to Baltimore City as a great place to grow a startup company,” he said.
“After carefully reviewing 77 applications, the selection committee picked 12 finalists who were invited to ‘pitch’ their idea in person,” said Jacqueline Albright, ETC’s Community and Program Manager. “Making the final cut was difficult.” The ETC also reached its goal to increase the applicant pool from that of last year’s. This year, applicant team members hailed from 16 states and foreign countries like Pakistan, U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Argentina.
To date, 16 companies have gone through the program and successfully launched their products. The AccelerateBaltimore program ends with Demo Day on April 29, 2015, an event at the ETC attended by angel investors, venture capitalists, the press, and the Baltimore tech community. Companies that have successfully graduated from AccelerateBaltimore include Allovue, NewsUp, PrintLess Plans, Rehabtics, Unbound Concepts, Survey Snap, Ntensify, and SeeFuture, among others.
For more information, visit http://www.acceleratebaltimore.com.
About the ETC (http://www.etcbaltimore.com)
The ETC, a venture of the Baltimore Development Corporation, is a 501(c) (3) technology and innovation center focused on growing early-stage companies. The ETC promotes economic development, providing business, technical, and networking connections to help these companies grow. Since 1999 ETC has provided assistance to over 350 companies, 87% of which are still in business, creating more than 2,325 jobs and have raised over $1.6 billion in outside funding.
