Connecticut’s strategic investment arm Connecticut Innovations concluded its global investment competition with the announcement of its six winners on October 24th. The winners, chosen from nine finalists in the $5 million funded challenge called VentureClash, hailed from seven different countries from around the world.
The ventures pitched their products and ideas to a live audience and judging panel which included industry experts and investors from 1843 Capital, The Hartford, Royal Bank of Scotland, Greycroft Partners, and Elm Street Ventures. The contest was open to early-stage companies working in the Internet of Things, insurance technology, financial technology, and digital health.
Matt McCooe, the CEO of Connecticut Innovations, spoke about the final round of judging, saying that, “Judges struggled to make the decision, but in the end, FRISS took home the top award because of its strength in the space and ability to disrupt here in the United States.”
FRISS, from the Netherlands, won the grand prize of a $1.5 million investment, for its use of proprietary analytics software to build solutions for the insurance industry in compliance, risk, and fraud fields. FRISS, along with all other winners and investment recipients, will also receive grants, customer introductions, mentoring, and other services and support to assist them in the future.
In second place, receiving $1 million investments are:
- Vouchr, from Canada, offering a payment-agnostic tool bundling social networking, gamification, videos, and photos with the ability to send funds.
- SCADAfence, from Israel, offering security from cyber threats by reducing the risk in multiple connected devices in gas, oil, utility, and manufacturing industries.
In third place, receiving $500,000 investments are:
- EAVE, from the U.K., leveraging speech enhancement and noise cancellation for a next-generation communication and hearing protection technology.
- Davra Networks, from Ireland, a complete Internet of Things platform enabling customers to build, define, market, and collect and share data on vertical-specific IoT applications.
- Buzzmove, from the U.K., allows price-comparison and instant booking on all moving-related services and the insurance needed to cover them.
Photo: Jeroen Morrenhof, CEO of FRISS and top investment award winner of VentureClash 2
