PROVIDENCE – Seven finalists for the 2017 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition were announced Thursday.
The finalists will present their ideas at an awards ceremony at the WaterFire Arts Center on May 16. The prizes for the competition are valued at $271,000. Sixty-three organizations and six former competitors have sponsored the event this year. Lead sponsors of the 2017 competition are Bryant University; Everhope Foundation; Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP; Integrated Media Group; Kahn Litwin Renza & Co.; Locke Lord LLP; Material Science Associates (former competitor); MedMates and Sprout.
The seven finalists are as follows:
- 5 Commas, an indoor agricultural control system and analytical data collection process, submitted by Andrew Oberlander of Brown University.
- BI Medical, which is creating single use devices for removing bacterial contamination of prostheses submitted by James Wagner, of Coventry.
- Care Thread, a cloud-based web application that delivers patient specific information in real time, submitted by Nick Adams, of Providence.
- Crave Food Services Corp., an online platform for local food product distribution to purchasers; its applicant is Matthew Tortora of North Kingstown.
- Echowear, a cloud-based remote monitoring system for health care providers, proposed by Nicholas Constant of the University of Rhode Island.
- Farmer Willie’s, developing a healthier, alcoholic ginger beer; applied for by Max Easton, of Pawtucket.
- Tvar EdTech, a phonics teaching device that also teaches braille, applied for by Alex Tavares, of East Greenwich.
According to the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, the organization has awarded prizes valued at more than $2 million since it began in 2000.
Chris Bergenheim is a PBN staff writer.
