Arabic Chinese (Simplified) Dutch English French German Italian Japanese Portuguese Russian Spanish
804.365.6464

Hanover’s Perspective

Business Plan Competitions Offer Funding to Virginia Startups

Virginia Velocity Tour

The Commonwealth of Virginia and Village Capital are hosting the weeklong Virginia Velocity Tour, which will provide $125,000 in funding to startups in the biotechnology, health, energy, agriculture, and security sectors. The tour kicks off on September 19, 2016, and applications for businesses to participate are now being accepted.

The Virginia Velocity Tour will travel across Virginia from September 19-23, with each stop highlighting a particular regional strength. Each day will feature a full day of events culminating in public pitch competitions to be held in Roanoke, Richmond, Hampton Roads, Northern Virginia and Charlottesville. Entrepreneurs from across the Commonwealth will pitch their business plans to local judges for a $25,000 equity-free grant prize. Five prizes will be awarded, a total of $125,000.

“Entrepreneurship is critical to job creation and economic growth in Virginia,” said Governor McAuliffe. “The Virginia Velocity Tour offers a great incentive for entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas and encourages startups that the best place to locate business is here in Virginia. Small, innovative business endeavors often bring the greatest contributions to an industry and we will continue to support programs like these that build and diversify our new Virginia economy.”

Each stop will focus on a specific industry theme highlighting a particular regional strength, including energy, STEM, biotechnology/health, cybersecurity and agriculture. Each competition will feature up to eight entrepreneurs from across the Commonwealth who work in that industry. Prior to the pitch competitions, the entrepreneurs will participate in public and private events that celebrate the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and convene local leaders for roundtable discussions. The tour will also include stops at local incubators and established businesses as part of “startup crawls.”

“We are thrilled to support this tour,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Maurice Jones. “Over the past two decades, innovation, demographic shifts and globalization have transformed our nation’s economy and redefined opportunity in the American workplace. Virginia is well positioned to stay in front of these trends and support entrepreneurs producing jobs in sectors that matter.”

Entrepreneurs can apply to participate online at virginiavelocitytour.org. Applications close on August 11, and selected entrepreneurs will be announced in late August.