Baltimore based startup, Sonavi Labs will be competing in the finals of the Nationwide Bluevine pitch competition at the Nationwide Insurance headquarters in Columbus, OH. The competition will award a grand prize of $100,000 to the winner, along with additional prizes for the first and second runners up.
The Pitch-to-Win competiton, which drew thousand of applicants from around the US, is sponsored by Nationwide Insurance and BlueVine Capital . 60 companies were selected as semi-finalists and only 10 advanced to the finals which will be held October 3rd. The finals will require each company to pitch in front of business experts in addition to completing interviews with industry experts and venture capitalists in an e ff ort to secure the grand prize.
Bluevine Capital was founded in 2013, and is a leader in online small business lending, having surpassed $1 billion in total funded volume in 2018. Nationwide Insurance, which has a much longer history, having been founded in 1926 as Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., expanded its reach into the investment capital arena and began offering Bluevine’s innovative, flexible financing services to its small business customers earlier this year. Founder and CEO, Eyal Lifshitz, said in a statement “We’re thrilled to be working with Nationwide to expand access to financing for small business owners.”
Nationwide provides a variety of services through its online Business Solutions Center, including Bluevine’s small business financing solutions. Small businesses can access banking services, insurance solutions, retirement and benefits information along with a host of other helpful information for starting and growing a successful business. The Sonavi Labs team will have the opportunity to engage with Nationwide and Bluevine’s network of financing and business experts while at Nationwide’s headquarters for the competition finals.
The Sonavi Labs team will be presenting the company’s inaugural product line, Feelix to the judging panel in hopes of winning the grand prize. Sonavi Labs recently placed 3rd overall in the Startup World Cup, a global pitch competition. The FeelixPro device, which is expected to be commercially available in Q1 of 2020, will be the first product of the platform to launch and will be targeted to professional physicians, clinical researchers and medical students