Virginia to hold business plan competition in September

The Commonwealth of Virginia and Village Capital announced Thursday that they will hold the weeklong Virginia Velocity Tour the week of Sept. 19.

The business plan competitions will provide a total of $125,000 to five startups across Virginia in the biotechnology, health, energy, agriculture and security sectors.

Applications for businesses are now being accepted at www.virginiavelocitytour.org.

Each stop will highlight a region’s strength ending with public pitch competitions in Roanoke, Richmond, Hampton Roads, Northern Virginia and Charlottesville. In each competition, eight entrepreneurs will pitch their business plans to local judges for $25,000 in equity-free grant prizes. 

Each stop will focus on a specific industry that highlights a regional strength, including energy, STEM, biotechnology/health, cybersecurity and agriculture.

Each day the entrepreneurs will participate in public and private events, including roundtables and visits to local incubators.

“We believe that the future of entrepreneurship will be more aligned with the Chesapeake Bay than the San Francisco Bay,” Ross Baird, CEO of Village Capital, said in a statement. “Over 75 percent of venture capital goes to California, Massachusetts and New York, and the entrepreneurs who get funding are likely to be solving problems that make the lives of well-off people a little easier. When you look at the industries that really matter for our society in the long term – agriculture, energy, health and others – Virginia is leading the way.”

Village Capital, which is partnering with Virginia to plan the tour, is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that trains and invests in seed-stage companies providing business solutions in agriculture, energy, education, financial inclusion and health.