New Venture Competition 2015 Call for Entries

Competition ignites entrepreneurial activity among Indiana life sciences early stage companies

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., June 29, 2015— The BioCrossroads New Venture Competition, an early stage business competition awarding more than $60,000 in prizes to life sciences and health information technology companies, is now accepting applications at www.biocrossroads.com. Since 2012, the competition has awarded more than $180,000 to twelve start-up companies which have been able to secure nearly $7 million in follow-on funding.

Early-stage biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic, ag-biotech and health information technology companies developing innovative products and platforms are eligible to apply for the New Venture Competition.  For consideration, companies must either be Indiana-based or be able to demonstrate a significant Indiana presence.

The winner receives a cash prize of $25,000 and receives access to the Indiana Seed Fund II staff and the fund’s network of resources to provide business planning and early-stage strategic support. They will also have the opportunity to make a presentation to the ILSFII investment committee. The fund has invested in several of the previous winners, collectively totaling over $1 million.

The winner will be announced at the Indiana Life Sciences Summit Innovation Capital Day on October 14, 2015, and have an opportunity to pitch their business to the conference audience.  Second and third place companies will be awarded cash prizes of $15,000 and $10,000 respectively. There will also be a Pre-Venture prize of $10,000 for a promising technology that is very early in its development.

Applications are available at www.biocrossroads.com and must be submitted by August 17, 2015.   Companies invited to the next round will be notified by August 28 and must submit their pitch deck by September 11, 2015. Presentations will be held from September 14-18, 2015.  The finalists will then present to a panel of expert judges before the Indiana Life Sciences Summit on Wednesday, Oct. 14. Additional details also are available at www.biocrossroads.com.

Previous winners continue to strengthen and develop. For example, West Lafayette-based Spensa Technologies Inc., is a precision agriculture company specializing in pest management technologies, will invest $681,813 to expand its existing operations based in the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette.

Indiana-based Diagnotes works to better communication in medical groups. Their solution has five components designed specifically for medical groups – including Secure Text Messaging and Medical Answering Service Automation via iOS, Android and web apps. Diagnotes is growing – both their employees and their client list. They were nominated for the prestigious 2015 TechPoint Mira Award for health technology.

5am Ventures, Taft, Med Institute, Halo Capital Group and VisionTech Partners are sponsors of BioCrossroads New Venture Competition.

About BioCrossroads
BioCrossroads (www.biocrossroads.com) is Indiana’s initiative to grow, advance and invest in the life sciences, a public-private collaboration that supports the region’s existing research and corporate strengths while encouraging new business development.  BioCrossroads provides money and support to life sciences businesses, launches new life sciences enterprises (Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, Indiana Health Information Exchange, Fairbanks Institute for Healthy Communities, BioCrossroadsLINX, OrthoWorx and Datalys Center), expands collaboration and partnerships among Indiana’s life science institutions, promotes science education and markets Indiana’s life sciences industry.