COVINGTON, KY – Adams, Stepner, Woltermann & Dusing, PLLC, a Mentoring Partner with UpTech, is pleased to announce the newly chosen first round of eight startup winners.  UpTech is a newly formed super business accelerator program designed to attract global startup companies to Northern Kentucky. The first round was chosen by a highly experienced team of judges made up of top executives from national informatics, futurists, business analyst and investment experts from leading companies, such as CBS, Cisco, Dell, Procter & Gamble, SAP, Scripps, and Summus Software.

“We are thrilled to finally announce to our region UpTech’s first round of winners,” said Bill Scheyer, President of Vision 2015 and an UpTech co-founder. “Our ultimate goal is to fund 50 of the best and brightest early-stage informatics companies from the United States and abroad. These eight companies will complement the foundation of a growing informatics cluster in our region, an important business sector in a 21st-century economy.”

The First Round Winners are:

7 Moose Games, a software developer offering 3D simulation products geared towards the health, oil and gas, mining, academic, manufacturing and public safety industries. The company specializes in the “gamification” of business and training software.

CitiLogics, a developer of real-time data fusion software that helps water utilities lower energy costs, reduce water leakage, improve service reliability and enhance the quality of tap water.

Crowdspark, an on-demand content platform that allows users to create online contests.

InstrumentLife, an Internet-based business application with a social media interface that connects musical instruments with owners, retailers, repair shops and schools.

MakeupHaulic, a website dedicated to aggregating beauty-related vlogs into a searchable interface.

OneMorePallet, a website that provides small shippers the ability to purchase excess capacity from Less-Than-a-Truckload carriers at a significant discount.

Student Designed, an online tool that allows businesses and universities to connect through a marketplace where businesses outsource projects for university professors to review and assign to their students as class assignments.

Text and the City, a mobile marketing company that combines text messaging, a conventional website and mobile website to connect users on a hyper-local basis.

Each company will receive up to $100,000 investment along with office space, professional support services and applied research assistance from Northern Kentucky University.

In addition, the eight winners are aligned to the applied research capabilities of NKU’s College of Informatics: health information technology, cloud computing virtualization, business analytics, digital media, and cyber security.

“Across the country entrepreneurs have a growing number of business accelerator programs to choose from,” says Casey Barach, co-founder of UpTech. “We pulled the best and the brightest team to assist in developing one of the most innovative and aggressive programs anywhere in the world. The combination of the investment funds, wrap-around professional services, city-centered riverfront office space and most importantly, the integrated partnership with NKU’s College of Informatics, these businesses have everything they need to grow their ideas and create jobs and innovation right here in Kentucky.”

The companies were vetted through a rigorous selection process that included an online application, live presentation, interviews and screenings. 

For full press release click here.