The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and Cox & Palmer yesterday launched the province’s fourth Breakthru competition, which tests entrants’ ability to write business plans and awards winners a total of $250,000 in cash and professional services.

The winner will receive a $100,000 cash investment from NBIF, along with professional services from such firms as Cox & Palmer. The two runners-up will each receive $50,000 plus legal, marketing, and accounting services.

Applications for the biennial contest must be received by NBIF by Dec. 20. The winners will be announced at the Breakthru Awards Dinner in Fredericton on March 20, 2013.  

“Starting up a new company is a risky adventure, and to take the leap into entrepreneurship, people need to know that turning their ideas into a business is a real possibility—Breakthru does exactly that,” said NBIF Chair Robert Hatheway in a statement.

The 2011 winner, Scene Sharp Technologies Inc., a Fredericton software company that improves the quality of colour digital photography, recently closed a $300,000 round of angel financing, which it hopes will help to commercialize a new product for security cameras.