If you see perplexed, agonized people wandering the streets of Fredericton on Thursday, treat them with kindness and sympathy. They may be judges in the 2017 Breakthru Competition.
These poor tortured souls have an unenviable task that must be carried out by closing time tomorrow: they have to choose the winners of the competition to find the best new startups in New Brunswick.
The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation stages Breakthru every second year, with the goal of finding high-potential companies, mentoring them and giving the winners six-figure prizes in cash and in-kind services.
Five companies are competing for the top three prizes in the Provincial competition, and three of them will leave with prizes worth between $324,000 and $176,000. This year, for the first time, there are also be two companies vying for the National prize, worth $301,000, awarded to companies from outside New Brunswick who agree to grow their company in the province.
The winners will be announced at the Breakthru Gala in Fredericton Thursday night. There will also be an announcement on the Viewers’ Choice award, in which CBC viewers choose which of the Provincial finalists will fly to Toronto to pitch on Dragon’s Den.
I’ve interviewed all five Provincial competition finalists and two things stand out: first, there’s a healthy diversity in the group. They’ve all produced software but they’re attacking different markets. Two are software with life science applications, and one each applied to CleanTech, FinTech and data analytics.
What stands out even more is how strong and close the competition is this year. All have traction, and all have a plan to get to market whether or not they emerge from Breakthru with prize money.
I’d take it one step farther. It’s not just that top five are neck and neck. I don’t think there’s a noticeable gap between the top six or seven competitors in this year’s competition. One of the semi-finalists that didn’t make it to the final five, eChart, pitched at the Propel ICT Demo Day in November. From what I’ve seen of that company, it could easily be in the top five. There could be others that I just haven’t had time to meet yet.
Entrevestor hasn’t yet profiled the finalists in the National Competition, Newpy and The Unity Project, but we hope to report on the winner in the near future.
Here are our reports on the finalists in the Provincial competition:
Quber Modernizes Traditional Saving
WEnTech: SaaS for Green Energy
EhEye Transforming Video Surveilance
