The Delaware Prosperity Partnership (DPP) is extending the entry deadline for the Startup302 Funding Competition.
Underrepresented founders of early stage, tech-enabled companies are the focus of the revamped funding competition that seeks to address the lack of minority and women startups.
And the Partnership’s innovation support manager Noah Olson says eligible companies have some extra time to get involved.
He says the deadline to enter moved from February 12th to February 22nd.
“We’ve got some new sponsors who joined last week and so we want to make sure that we give the potential applicant universe - make them more aware of the community of sponsors and give them a little bit more time to maybe tweak or update their applications before submitting,”Olson said,
Olson adds that the grant prize money has grown from $200,000 to $260,000
“Our biggest prize pool is being provided by the Delaware Division of Small Business. That’s going to be restricted to Delaware companies, but we’ve got up to $150,000 in prizes that are going to be available for innovative startup companies with underrepresented founders that are Delaware-based," said Olson. "And then we’ve got several more that were just announced by Delaware corporate community sponsors.”
Olson says there’s also an $20,000 award for financial health from Discover Bank, another for $10,000 in innovation and agriculture from FMC, and an innovation in health prize of $10,000 from Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware.
He notes they have 50 applicants so far, and another 60 are in the process of submitting entries.
Startups in advanced materials, agriculture, bioscience, business and financial services and chemistry are strongly encouraged to participate.
The finals of the competition will be held virtually in the spring.
