Owners of the five startup companies selected for the Beaverton Startup Challenge stand with Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty (center) to accept a check to help fund their new businesses.
Owners of the five startup companies selected for the Beaverton Startup Challenge stand with Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty (center) to accept a check to help fund their new businesses.
Five up and coming businesses in the Portland metro area are getting a leg up this year, thanks to the Oregon Startup Center.
At the same time, the business incubator is moving to the executive suites within the Beaverton Round building at 12725 S.W. Millikan Way.
Formerly known as the Oregon Technology Business Center, the local business incubator invests in and mentors new companies looking to expand into national and international markets. For the last eight years, the business startup assistance group has been offering investments and mentorships to new companies in the Beaverton area.
Each winner — including those that make child learning programs, create new ways to build houses and offer cancer treatments — receives a $25,000 investment, plus access to accounting, human resources and marketing services and business training through the Oregon Startup Center.
Jim McCreight, director of the Oregon Startup Center, said in a statement that “this new cohort represents a diverse mix of entrepreneurs and industries, and we are looking forward to helping grow these companies in the years ahead.”
The Oregon Startup Center provides co-located office space for the startup challenge winners, which will be in the Beaverton City Hall building starting at the beginning of 2023. The business incubator was previously at 3800 S.W. Cedar Hills Blvd.
Five startup companies were selected to receive a total of $125,000, sponsored by the city of Beaverton and other investors.
“Beaverton is full of creative entrepreneurs,” Mayor Lacey Beaty said in a statement. “I’m excited for these five businesses who are doing such meaningful and important work. The impact and benefit of their innovative solutions will reach through and far beyond our city’s boundaries.”
The winners of this year’s challenge were:
Finnegan the Dragon, based in Hillsboro, creates online games and lessons centered around music that aims to help early childhood literacy development.
Humankind Homes, based in Portland, aims to innovate the way homes are built, to be more affordable and sustainable. The company specifically uses interlocking bricks made from sustainable concrete.
Keliomics, based in Portland, offers personalized treatment testing for people with breast, prostate and ovarian solid cancers.
RUTE Foundation Systems, based in Portland, sells wind and solar energy systems to be installed on farm land.
My Fertility Health: Navie, which is an application that allows people to monitor reproductive health and fertility.
In the last seven years of the program, 26 of the 35 companies that won the startup challenge are still in business and have raised over $100 million in additional funding, according to the Oregon Startup Center.
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