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TechSquare Labs hosted its quarterly Atlanta Startup Battle on Tuesday and to no one’s surprise, the movers and shakers in the tech ecosystem came out in droves to see what new startup would win the $100,000 grand prize.
This year’s application numbers were at an all-time high, with over 500 applications submitted. Founders Allen Nance and Paul Judge and Director of Special Operations Daniel Sabio had to choose a Top 20 (traditionally Top 10) for Mentor Day (Mar 28) where startup teams were able to practice pitches and speak to top investors and entrepreneurs in the tech ecosystem.
For the Battle, a Top 6 was selected (compared to the traditional Top 5) to pitch head-to-head to investor judges including: Co-Founder of Atlanta Tech Village/Atlanta Venture’s David Cummings, BoldStart Ventures’ Eliot Durbin, TechSquare Ventures’ Blake Patton, Las Olas Venture Capital’s Esteban Reyes, and Morgan Stanley’s Alice Vilma. During the pitches, judges were able to ask hard-hitting questions on the development of each startup using rigorous grading criteria.
OSS Police win the top prize
Attendees were able to watch in-person in the packed TechSquare atrium or via the live stream on the roof where food trucks and vendors were stationed along with a DJ to keep the party going. Once pitches were completed and the judges were deliberating, all of the attendees made their way to the rooftop to watch the winner of $100,000 investment be awarded. Founders of TechSquare Labs and serial entrepreneurs of the Atlanta tech ecosystem, Allen Nance and Paul Judge, made inspiring speeches on the entrepreneurial spirit of Atlanta alongside the past winners of ASB: Cinchapi, Oculogx, Fraudscope.
“We are so proud of our past winners and everything they have accomplished,” Judge stated, “I would give them the mic to talk about their achievements, but we’ll be here all night.”
Ultimately the winner of the Atlanta Startup Battle’s $100,000 seed investment was awarded to OSS Police, a cloud-based audit platform for businesses that offers software under dual free/commercial licenses terms. Co-founded by Ashish Bijlani and Ruian Duan, the system quickly detects mobile apps violating a business licensing terms and creating new customers.
Judges also announce funding of two other finalists
In an awesome turn of events following the OSS Police win, Judge also announced that TechSquare would also be funding two other finalists, Eletype (a real-time digital marketing agent designed for search and social media marketing campaigns and fix errors in real-time) and Cove.Tool (a decision-making software that helps architects, engineers, owners, and contractors to optimize building options at best cost).
The energy and excitement from this year’s Battle seemed to give entrepreneurs in the crowd a jumpstart to their startup dreams and perhaps the impetus to be next quarter’s big winner. Stay tuned for the next installment of Atlanta Startup Battle later in summer by registering here.
Photo Credit: Lynsey Weatherspoon
