The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation’s current Breakthru competition will be dramatically bigger than the 2013 edition, both in terms of number of participants and total prizes.
The New Brunswick innovation agency announced this morning that it received applications for the biennial startup competition from 62 teams representing 108 entrepreneurs from all over New Brunswick. In the 2013 event, there were 47 entries.
The total prizes will almost double to $750,000 in cash and in-kind services. That’s up from $406,000 last time out.
“This is the highest number of Breakthru entries we've received to date, telling us that innovation-based entrepreneurship is something New Brunswickers want to use to create a better future for themselves and their communities,” said NBIF Chair Robert Hatheway in a statement. “The success of Breakthru and its growth year-over-year tells me that, as a means for economic growth in the province, innovation and entrepreneurship is building itself on solid ground.”
NBIF – which sponsors and advertises in Entrevestor – holds its Breakthru competition every second year with the goals of drawing out latent entrepreneurs with good ideas and helping to launch the best candidates.
While the grand prize for first place has risen from $192,000 in 2013 to $287,250 in the current competition, the biggest increase has been in the second- and third-place prizes. They are now both worth $222,250, up respectively from $137,000 and $77,000 last time. What that means is the competition should give sufficient resources to three companies to launch.
Milbury said the aim is to come up with a “company in a box” to present to the winners. That means that in addition to an investment by NBIF, they will have legal and accounting services, as well as banking, insurance, web design and the like.
Cox & Palmer and Deloitte, NBIF’s corporate partners in the event, contributed a total of $323,000 in support. Of that support, $234,000 was contributed in the form of prizes with the remainder reserved for the administration, production and promotion of the competition.
The prizes include: IT services from Blue Spurs; executive coaching services from Vision Coaching; branding and digital design services from Orange Sprocket; web and video production from Outreach Productions; branding and design services from Ginger Design; and company launch event at a Cineplex.
The Department of Economic Development will provide NB Growth Cash incentives of up to $45,000 per Breakthru winner, subject to NB Growth program eligibility requirements.
NBIF said there may be more prizes announced.
The teams will gather for the Breakthru Bootcamp on January 17 and the winners will be announced at a gala dinner in Fredericton on March 19.
Entrevestor receives financial support from government agencies that support start-up companies in Atlantic Canada. The sponsoring agencies play no role in determining which companies are featured in this column nor do they have the right to review columns before they are published.
