The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation announced the winners of the 21st annual Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge (NVC) last week. NVC is one of the most prestigious startup programs in the country and a cornerstone of the Booth MBA experience.
This year, a record 11 companies competed in the NVC finals for a chance at a share of the $400,000 cash prize pool. This year’s top winners include:
- AMOpportunities: This new marketplace enables international medical trainees to attend U.S. clinical rotations and connects international students and trainees to over 300 educational programs hosted by U.S. institutions, hospitals, clinics and physicians. AMOpportunities won first place and $100,000.
- Switched Source: This company is focused on increasing the reliability and efficiency of the last mile of electricity delivery. The company is currently commercializing a patented power electronics device, which gives electric distribution companies a new level of control for managing power flows on the distribution grid. Switched Source took home second place and $80,000.
- Ezza: This company specializes consistent, high-quality manicures for modern women without the fuss by offering seamless online booking, cashless tip-included pricing, and early morning hours. The Ezza won third place and $75,000.
- ClostraBio: This company developing new drugs that will enable patients living with food allergies to eat the allergenic food without fear of an allergic reaction, took fourth place and $40,000 from the Polsky Center. ClostraBio’s drugs boost the body’s natural intestinal barrier, stopping the reaction before it starts.
According to the Booth School, NVC has helped facilitate the creation of more than 160 startup companies that have collectively achieved more than $4 billion in mergers and exits. Several of those startups include: Braintree, which acquired Venmo and was then later acquired by PayPal in 2013 for $800 million; Bump Technologies, which was acquired by Google in 2013 and GrubHub, which debuted an initial public offering in April 2014.