Bend Venture Conference winners announced
Economic Development for Central Oregon on Friday hosted the 12 th Annual Bend Venture Conference before a sold-out crowd and at day’s end announced the winners of $620,000 in investment awards, cash prizes and services.
Side investment deals are still being finalized.
Following is a list of the winners:
Winners of the BVC, LLC, Growth Stage competition: Growth Stage finalist, Odysys, which helps hotels drive more direct bookings at a lower cost by allowing hoteliers to connect, manage and track digital marketing efforts with one simple platform, won the conference’s major prize, a $205,000 investment.
A secondary investment of $125,000 was awarded to Perfect Company, a Vancouver, Wash., company revolutionizing cooking with aconnected scale and interactive recipe solution.
The investment arm of the conference, BVC, LLC, awarded the Growth Stage investments following considerable due diligence of each of the five presenting finalists. The investment included $50,000 from Oregon Community Foundation/Meyer Memorial Trustand $75,000 from Oregon Growth Account.
“The caliber of the companies pitching this year was outstanding,” said Brian Vierra, Venture Catalyst for EDCO. “Odysys and Perfect Company built on their success from last year and were the strongest on the stage. We hope to announce final investment dollars in the next few weeks.”
Winner of the $15,000 BendBroadband Business Early Stage competition: SnoPlanks won the $15,000 BendBroadband Business Early Stage Cash Prize. For this competition, conference attendees voted on the company they believed could benefit the most from the money. SnoPlanks is a Bend-based manufacturer of high-end bamboo snowboards.
Winner of the Cascade Angels Fund Investment Award:
Scratch-it, a Portland-based company with an enterprise-class cloud platform that increases traffic and engagement, won a $125,000 Investment Award from Cascade Angels.
Winners of the Seven Peaks Ventures Investment Awards: Scratch-it also won a $100,000 Investment Award from Seven Peaks Ventures.
Winner of the Mandala Firestarter Marketing Program Awards: Growth Stage finalist Perfect Company also won Mandala’s Firestarter Marketing Program Award for $50,000 worth of marketing and branding services.
“This conference is a huge highlight every year,” said Julie Harrelson, CEO of Harrelson Group, Fund Manager Cascade Angels.
About the Bend Venture Conference
The Bend Venture Conference is divided into two categories that consist of Early Stage and Growth Stage companies vying for investment and cash prizes. Learn more about BVC at www.bendvc.edcoinfo.com.
About Economic Development for Central Oregon
Founded in 1981, Economic Development for Central Oregon is a non-profit corporation, supported by private and public members and stakeholders, whose mission is to create middle-class jobs in Central Oregon by recruiting new employers to move to the region, helping entrepreneurs start new, scalable businesses, and working with businesses that are already here to grow their operations. This is the sixth year EDCO has managed the Bend Venture Conference. Learn more about EDCO atwww.edcoinfo.com.
