ETC Accelerate Baltimore's Additional $100,000 in Funding to be awarded to Baltimore Based Chord
BALTIMORE, April 24, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The ETC (Emerging Technology Centers), Baltimore City's leading technology and innovation centers, announced Wednesday the winner of the Accelerate Baltimore program's additional funding of $100,000 was Baltimore based company Barttron with its product Chord. Each year, Accelerate Baltimore (AB) awards six companies $25,000 each in seed funding and provides an intensive four-month program to help them move their businesses forward.
ETC President and Executive Director, Deb Tillett commented, "The addition of the $100,000 follow-on funding opportunity has really put Accelerate Baltimore, ETC and Baltimore City on the national stage; the quality of applicants was very high this year and it made it difficult to settle on the cohort."
This is the sixth year in which the ETC, in partnership with the Abell Foundation, has successfully run Accelerate Baltimore. To date, 34 companies including Allovue, MyBestBox and Loople, have graduated from the program raising a total of $11 million in follow on funding. Last year, after looking extensively at early stage funding trends in 2015, and the experiences in the past years of AB companies, ETC concluded that requesting additional funding from its Abell Foundation partners in the amount of $100,000 would enhance the probability that these companies would be successful. This is now the second year in a row that AB has awarded the additional funding.
Robert C. Embry, Jr., President of the Abell Foundation, said, "The Accelerate Baltimore competition showcases the talent and innovation we have within the Baltimore community. We want to congratulate the winner of the competition and wish all the participating companies great success and continued growth in Baltimore City."
Barttron is developing Chord, a smart collar that gives dog owners a punishment-free electronic training and monitoring device to keep dogs safe, protect property, and eliminate unwanted behavior. The Chord collar solves the most common problems of dog owners: creating indoor and outdoor boundaries, providing no-harm behavior reinforcement, and eliminating excessive barking - without ever punishing or hurting the beloved pet. Barttron is raising a seed round closing in June to take the current Chord prototype to initial production.
"The $100k investment by the Abell Foundation will allow us to move beyond our current 'garage-based' prototype manufacturing to the industrial processes we need to make high quality collars and be able to scale in the near-future" Says Jared Marmen, CEO of Barttron.
The Investor Pitch Night ended AB's 2017 program, where each of the six companies pitched the judging panel made up of local investors for a chance at the additional funding. The Accelerate Baltimore Investor Pitch Night was held at the Mt. Washington Dye House and Barttons' Chord was the choice to receive the additional funding. The award was presented by ETC's Deb Tillett, Baltimore Development Corporation's (BDC) William Cole, and Abell Foundation's Eileen O'Rourke.
About the ETC: www.etcbaltimore.com
Media Contact: Jackie Albright
Phone: 443-451-7003
[email protected]
SOURCE ETC
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