By Hanah Cho
A payment app for valet parking to a skin care company are among the 10 finalists for the inaugural $50,000 North Texas Business Pitch competition sponsored by Comerica Bank.
The 10 companies will vie for four spots at a live pitch event on Nov. 20 at the Dallas Entrepreneur Center, which partnered with the bank to organize the competition.
The winner will receive a no-strings attached $50,000 cash infusion to help the business.
The competition received 126 applications, which were then reviewed by a committee of 10 judges. The committee included two Comerica representatives as well as Dallas area business and startup leaders, such as David Matthews from Dallas venture capital firm Trailblazer Capital and Darlene Boudreaux of Tech Fort Worth.
“We have been very impressed with not only the number of companies that applied for the DEC North Texas Business Pitch Contest sponsored by Comerica, but also the quality of those companies,” said Trey Bowles, the DEC’s CEO, who also served as a judge. “We are so grateful to Comerica Bank for their role in providing a $50,000 grant to one company that will material improve their chances of success as a startup business in North Texas.”
To help narrow the 10 finalists, the contest is holding a public voting period that would guarantee the business with the most votes a spot on the live pitch round. The voting will start today and end on Oct. 31.
The contest is also partnering with 1 Million Cups Dallas to give the finalists the opportunity to practice their pitches this month. Each finalist is also expected to create a 60-second video to help promote their business.
Here are the 10 finalists:
XOcur is a cloud computing provider for businesses.
Savvy Boheme is a handcrafted, natural skin care company based in Cedar Hill.
Parqer is an app that allows drivers to tip and pay for valet parking.
I2I inc. is developing a wearable camera called iPal that follows your eyes and allows you to take pictures or video of what you are seeing.
EasyEye develops kiosks that provide consumers with custom over-the-counter reading glasses.
Glass Media is a digital signage company.
Rollout provides project management services that allow users to access documents and drawings as well as collaborate with team members from any device.
Players Revolution is an adult recreational sports ranking and prize service that helps players organize regional and national championship tournaments.
Deadeye provides marksmen with technology, data and feedback to improve their skills.
LiveWire is an online tax preparation service.
This post was shared with permission from The Dallas Morning News.
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