Accelerate Okanagan is hosting its fourth annual OKGN Angel Summit finale, giving six startups a chance to pitch their business.
The winning business will take home $150,000.
Founded in 2010, Accelerate Okanagan is a non-profit organization that gives entrepreneurs the connections and guidance they need to grow in the current technology-driven business industry. The Angel Summit initiative is an investor-led event to expose new businesses to investors and angel investing, which is when long-running businesses invest in startup businesses.
Accelerate Okanagan started the OKGN Angel Summit in 2019 and since then, the event has trained over 140 entrepreneurs and has had more than 80 accredited investors back up the start-up businesses. Over the first three events, the summit has supplied more than $4 million for start-up companies.
This year, 24 companies will be evaluated and put through the 10-week guided process to learn capital-raising and investing. Through the 10 weeks, the companies learn how to get vetted and learn about improvements they could make. There are multiple pitch meetings done by the startup companies as the contest goes on.
“This year we have seen companies working on solutions for everything from reducing waste and improving urban transportation, to automation in the cannabis and retail industries,” said Brea Lake, CEO at Accelerate Okanagan.
After the first evaluation, the top 12 companies advance (where the competition sits right now). The finale is for the top six companies looking for their start-up opportunity. They are provided with training in the due diligence process at this stage.
The finale is taking place virtually on Wednesday, March 16 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in front of an audience. For this year’s event, Accelerate Okanagan has some keynote speakers that will speak before the companies make their pitches.
Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB) will be the first speaker. The Order of Canada recipient is in both the B.C. Business Hall of Fame and Canada Business Hall of Fame and has spoken at conferences all over the world. He will be discussing the importance of balancing money and investments.
The husband-wife duo of Dan Martell and Reneé Warren will speak as well. Martell started at age 17 and has built many multi-million tech dollar companies and is currently an executive coach at one of his companies, SaaS Academy. Warren is the founder of We Wild Women, an entrepreneur start-up company and is an award-winning inspirational speaker, author and entrepreneur.
The six companies will give a five-minute pitch to the investors, where they decide who the winning company is and who will receive $150,000.
The Summit Finale will be hosted on Remo, a virtual networking platform. Tickets are available at here.
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