Date: May 03, 2013 Author: Kelli Dugan Source: Alabama Media Group (
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By Kelli Dugan
MOBILE, Alabama -- Mobile's Exscien Corp. took home more than half of the $100,000 in funding awarded to Friday's three winners in the 2013 Alabama Launchpad Startup Competition.
Exscien, a biotechnology firm that develops drugs to repair damage to mitochondrial DNA, was awarded $54,000, while Nutripilot took home $38,000 and Carbon Nanotube Engineered Surfaces won $8,0000.
For the unacquainted, Launchpad is the brainchild of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama Foundation that allows "pre-seed" companies to compete in an entrepreneurial-infused environment for their share of start-up funding. Competitors must prove their commercial relevance to a five-judge panel comprised of entrepreneurs, investors and corporate stakeholders.
Greg Sheek, Launchpad programs director, said the competition has grown from a modest pilot project to a key component supporting Alabama's entrepreneurship ecosystem. To date, the startup competition has awarded more than $1 million to winners, with an emphasis placed on the creation of high-wage, high-growth jobs.
Only five companies -- culled from the original 22 competitors -- advanced to Friday's final pitch phase at Evonik Degussa in Birmingham, and Exscien returns to the Port City $54,000 closer to developing drugs aimed at providing the first-available treatments for an array of human diseases, ranging from organ transplant to trauma-related multi-organ system failure.
Birmingham-based Nutripilot pitched its collaborative healthcare solution that incorporates smartphones and a web-based portal for corporations, individuals, and physicians, while Carbon NanoTubes Engineered Surfaces, also based in Birmingham, presented nanotechnology to enhance the surface composition of engineered materials improving interlaminate strength by as much as 40 percent.
"We want to do this in Alabama," Exscien team member Mark Gillespie told the judges when asked about the company's commitment to workforce development.
Specifically, Launchpad represents the "renewal" component of the state's broader, long-range economic development plan, Accelerate Alabama.
Funded by corporate sponsors and the Alabama Research Alliance, Launchpad also receives support from seven partnering universities, including Alabama State University, Auburn University, the University of Alabama, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Alabama in Huntsville, the University of South Alabama and Alabama A & M University.
The foundation is also currently accepting -- for the first time in its seven-year history -- applications for a second Launchpad competition in the same calendar year.
"There are lots of great ideas and startups across the state, and with a second competition round, we can help even more ideas become real businesses that create jobs," Sheek said in a previous interview.
Interested teams are asked to submit an application and a non-refundable $150 application fee. As many as 25 startups will be selected to participate, and the registration deadline is midnight May 22. Applicants accepted to compete will be announced June 13.
