ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF THE 18TH ANNUAL BEND VENTURE CONFERENCE
Seven Companies Awarded a Total of $550,000 at this Year’s Conference
BEND, Ore. – October 22, 2021 – Economic Development for Central Oregon (EDCO) hosted the 18th Annual Bend Venture Conference (BVC) from Downtown Bend. Fourteen companies presented on the Tower Theatre stage to a hybrid audience and seven companies were awarded with a total of $550,000 in investments and cash.
This August, companies from across the U.S. applied to the conference looking for investment and exposure. These companies represent some of the best in innovation across multiple industries.
This year’s award breakdown is as follows:
Growth Stage Competition
The Growth Stage Competition, for companies that have a proven concept and initial revenues, had three winners.
- Winners of BVC, LLC, Investment Awards*:
- DeepSurface (Portland, OR) – A risk-based predictive vulnerability management platform that contextualizes vulnerabilities within a business’s digital infrastructure, was awarded $200,000.
- Lora DiCarlo (Bend, OR) – Makers of sex tech products using advanced technology to mimic human touch and movements, was awarded $100,000.
- The Run Experience (Bend, OR) – A daily fitness app with daily audio runs and training programs designed to build a healthy running habit, was awarded $50,000.
*The investment arm of the conference, BVC, LLC, awarded the Growth Stage investments following considerable due diligence of each of the five presenting finalists. Investments and follow-on deals are still being finalized.
Impact Competition
The Impact Competition, for-profit companies with an integrated social or environmental mission, had two winners, awarded by the BVC Impact LLC.
- Winners of the BVC Impact LLC, Investment Awards*:
- Skip Technology (Portland, OR) – Developers and manufacturers of a novel flow, low-cost battery for use in utility scale energy storage, focusing on solar, wind and waves production facilities, was awarded $100,000.
- TENZR Health (Vancouver, BC) – Intelligent wearable sensors, gamification and healthcare expertise, providing patients with motivation, guidance and certainty in their recovery, was awarded $50,000.
*The Impact investment arm of the conference awarded an investment following considerable due diligence of each of the four presenting finalists. Investments and follow-on deals are still being finalized.
Early Stage Competition
The Early Stage Competition included companies that are pre-revenue (or very early) and are in the process of testing their product in the market. The two winning Early Stage companies are:
- Winners of the Portland Seed Fund Early Stage Competition:
- Radious (Portland, OR) – An online marketplace for rentable home office and meeting space, was awarded $25,000.
- Tonsil Tech (Bend, OR) – Makers of an at-home handheld device to remove tonsil stones painlessly and effectively, was awarded $25,000.
2021 Growth Stage Finalists
-
- DeepSurface (Portland, OR) – A risk-based predictive vulnerability management platform that contextualizes vulnerabilities within a business’s digital infrastructure.
- Lora DiCarlo (Bend, OR) – Sex tech products using advanced technology to mimic human touch and movements.
- Portl (Eugene, OR) – An innovative tech platform dedicated to empowering creators with equitable tools for monetizing content and building community.
- PupPod (Hood River, OR) – A multispecies gaming platform that provides dogs with software-driven, positive reinforcement games and humans with a powerful tool to be great pet parents.
- The Run Experience (Bend, OR) – A daily fitness app with daily audio runs and training programs designed to build a healthy running habit.
2021 Impact Competition Finalists
-
- LeapFrog Design (Bend, OR) – Designs, develops, and commercializes cost-effective, superior performance, residential, rainwater, greywater, and wastewater recycling systems for homebuilders and building owners.
- Skip Technology (Portland, OR) – Developing and manufacturing a novel flow, low-cost battery for use in utility scale energy storage, focusing on solar, wind and waves production facilities.
- TENZR Health (Vancouver, BC) – Intelligent wearable sensors, gamification and healthcare expertise, providing patients with motivation, guidance and certainty in their recovery.
- UV Health Group (Hillsboro, OR) – Designs and produces the SafeAirUV System to eliminate 99.99% of airborne viruses, like COVID-19, from indoor rooms, while people are in the room
2021 Early Stage Finalists
-
- cannecht (Bend, OR) – A digital marketplace to help cannabis operators find and secure service contracts with trusted providers.
- KinectAir (Vancouver, WA) – Private aviation made public. Affordable, soon-to-be electric, aircraft booked from your smartphone using local community airports.
- LifeAir (Portland, OR) – Saving millions of lives by pioneering the first ventilator that eliminates patient-to-patient transmission of diseases, such as pneumonia and COVID.
- Radious (Portland, OR) – An online marketplace for rentable home office and meeting space.
- Tonsil Tech (Redmond, OR) – At-home handheld device to remove tonsil stones painlessly and effectively.
ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF THE 18TH ANNUAL BEND VENTURE CONFERENCE
Seven Companies Awarded a Total of $550,000 at this Year’s Conference
BEND, Ore. – October 22, 2021 – Economic Development for Central Oregon (EDCO) hosted the 18th Annual Bend Venture Conference (BVC) from Downtown Bend. Fourteen companies presented on the Tower Theatre stage to a hybrid audience and seven companies were awarded with a total of $550,000 in investments and cash.
This August, companies from across the U.S. applied to the conference looking for investment and exposure. These companies represent some of the best in innovation across multiple industries.
This year’s award breakdown is as follows:
Growth Stage Competition
The Growth Stage Competition, for companies that have a proven concept and initial revenues, had three winners.
- Winners of BVC, LLC, Investment Awards*:
- DeepSurface (Portland, OR) – A risk-based predictive vulnerability management platform that contextualizes vulnerabilities within a business’s digital infrastructure, was awarded $200,000.
- Lora DiCarlo (Bend, OR) – Makers of sex tech products using advanced technology to mimic human touch and movements, was awarded $100,000.
- The Run Experience (Bend, OR) – A daily fitness app with daily audio runs and training programs designed to build a healthy running habit, was awarded $50,000.
*The investment arm of the conference, BVC, LLC, awarded the Growth Stage investments following considerable due diligence of each of the five presenting finalists. Investments and follow-on deals are still being finalized.
Impact Competition
The Impact Competition, for-profit companies with an integrated social or environmental mission, had two winners, awarded by the BVC Impact LLC.
- Winners of the BVC Impact LLC, Investment Awards*:
- Skip Technology (Portland, OR) – Developers and manufacturers of a novel flow, low-cost battery for use in utility scale energy storage, focusing on solar, wind and waves production facilities, was awarded $100,000.
- TENZR Health (Vancouver, BC) – Intelligent wearable sensors, gamification and healthcare expertise, providing patients with motivation, guidance and certainty in their recovery, was awarded $50,000.
*The Impact investment arm of the conference awarded an investment following considerable due diligence of each of the four presenting finalists. Investments and follow-on deals are still being finalized.
Early Stage Competition
The Early Stage Competition included companies that are pre-revenue (or very early) and are in the process of testing their product in the market. The two winning Early Stage companies are:
- Winners of the Portland Seed Fund Early Stage Competition:
- Radious (Portland, OR) – An online marketplace for rentable home office and meeting space, was awarded $25,000.
- Tonsil Tech (Bend, OR) – Makers of an at-home handheld device to remove tonsil stones painlessly and effectively, was awarded $25,000.
2021 Growth Stage Finalists
-
- DeepSurface (Portland, OR) – A risk-based predictive vulnerability management platform that contextualizes vulnerabilities within a business’s digital infrastructure.
- Lora DiCarlo (Bend, OR) – Sex tech products using advanced technology to mimic human touch and movements.
- Portl (Eugene, OR) – An innovative tech platform dedicated to empowering creators with equitable tools for monetizing content and building community.
- PupPod (Hood River, OR) – A multispecies gaming platform that provides dogs with software-driven, positive reinforcement games and humans with a powerful tool to be great pet parents.
- The Run Experience (Bend, OR) – A daily fitness app with daily audio runs and training programs designed to build a healthy running habit.
2021 Impact Competition Finalists
-
- LeapFrog Design (Bend, OR) – Designs, develops, and commercializes cost-effective, superior performance, residential, rainwater, greywater, and wastewater recycling systems for homebuilders and building owners.
- Skip Technology (Portland, OR) – Developing and manufacturing a novel flow, low-cost battery for use in utility scale energy storage, focusing on solar, wind and waves production facilities.
- TENZR Health (Vancouver, BC) – Intelligent wearable sensors, gamification and healthcare expertise, providing patients with motivation, guidance and certainty in their recovery.
- UV Health Group (Hillsboro, OR) – Designs and produces the SafeAirUV System to eliminate 99.99% of airborne viruses, like COVID-19, from indoor rooms, while people are in the room
2021 Early Stage Finalists
-
- cannecht (Bend, OR) – A digital marketplace to help cannabis operators find and secure service contracts with trusted providers.
- KinectAir (Vancouver, WA) – Private aviation made public. Affordable, soon-to-be electric, aircraft booked from your smartphone using local community airports.
- LifeAir (Portland, OR) – Saving millions of lives by pioneering the first ventilator that eliminates patient-to-patient transmission of diseases, such as pneumonia and COVID.
- Radious (Portland, OR) – An online marketplace for rentable home office and meeting space.
- Tonsil Tech (Redmond, OR) – At-home handheld device to remove tonsil stones painlessly and effectively.