Village Capital Announces Winners for Virginia Velocity Tour Business Plan Competition

RICHMOND, Va. and WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Village Capital and the Commonwealth of Virginia today announced the winners for the first-ever Virginia Velocity Tour Business Plan Competition. Winners include FluxTeq, Hamilton Perkins Collection, Adartis Animal Health, Hill Top Security Inc. and Agrospheres.

The Virginia Velocity Tour, a partnership between Village Capital and the Commonwealth of Virginia, was created to provide visibility and seed funding for promising startups throughout Virginia. Held September 19-23, the program highlighted industry sectors of regional strength, from health and biotech to energy, agriculture and security. During the tour, 29 finalists participated in public pitch competitions to panels of local judges for the chance to win $25,000 in equity-free grant funding. Five prizes were awarded, for a statewide total of $125,000.

"The Virginia Velocity Tour is one of the most successful initiatives we've been involved in. The quality of the entrepreneurs we have worked with make me very optimistic about Virginia's economy," said Ross Baird, CEO of Village Capital. "It has been an honor to collaborate with Governor McAuliffe, his team and partners across the Commonwealth. We look forward to continuing to work with this community of founders across Virginia that are building the next generation of the economy."

The Virginia Velocity Tour committee selected winners from a group of entrepreneurs from five regions across the state:

• Roanoke/Blacksburg Region: FluxTeq, a creator of flux sensors and thermal instrumentation manufacturing, for applications ranging from energy efficient HVAC systems to medical diagnostics and management of thermal systems.  Other finalists from this region include Netarus, The Energy Control Group, Aesop Technologies, Tumalow and Imade3d.
• Richmond/Williamsburg Region: Hamilton Perkins Collection, which designs, manufacturers and sells a low-cost designer bag line, constructed from recycled plastic bottles, with liners made of repurposed vinyl billboards.  Other regional finalists include Glass Smith, Card Isle, PlayYourCourt.com, Relish and Delect.
• Hampton Roads Region: Adartis Animal Health , a creator of bio-pharmaceutical veterinary products that combat disease and promote healing, including its flagship Kalvatin enzyme technology derived from deep-sea cod to combat infections, reduce plaque/tartar and promote animals' natural healing processes.  Other finalists from the Hampton Roads region include GOGO Bands, Sanyal Biotechnology, Track Patch 1 Corporation, Cardinal Mechatronics and Attention Point.
• Northern Virginia (NOVA) Region: Hill Top Security Inc., which develops and markets a fully automated enterprise incident management & response system that help public and private organizations in processing and managing security incidents. Other finalists from Northern Virginia include Tensor Wrench, Inc., Eunomic, UnMEZ Inc. and  J&F Alliance Group Inc.
• Charlottesville Region: Agrospheres, which develops biotech solutions for environmental remediation and precision agriculture, making harvesting safer and more profitable for farmers. Other finalists from the Charlottesville area include Seasonal Roots, Hungry Marketplace. Bonomuse Biochem LLC, Edible Edu and Tellus Agronomics LLC.

For additional information about the Virginia Velocity Tour, visit https://governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/newsarticle?articleId=16033. For additional information about the winners in the Tour's Business Plan Competition, visit virginiavelocitytour.org.

About Village Capital

Village Capital, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, sources, trains and invests in seed-stage entrepreneurs with business solutions to major global problems in agriculture, energy, education, financial inclusion, and health, and then puts the power of investment in the hands of the entrepreneurs, who allocate investments to the two ventures ranked highest by their peers at the end of every program. Over the past seven years, the organization has supported over 500 companies in 15 countries; this year, Village Capital is working with 27 communities around the world to implement sector-focused, peer-reviewed investments in local entrepreneurs through its VilCap Communities initiative.

To learn more, visit http://www.vilcap.com.

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SOURCE Village Capital

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