DFJ Cisco Biz Plan Contest (Edition 2)

I’m picking this up about a month late, but it is worth writing about anyway. The second edition of the DFJ and Cisco Global Business Plan Competition concluded on June 29. This year’s winner is Ambiq Micro, a ubiquitous computing startup incubated at the University of Michigan, US. The company is developing next generation, energy efficient micro-controllers. Their prize is seed money worth $250,000. Read more about them here.

Also read about last year’s winners, Husk Power Systems, here. Last I checked, they are going great guns and picked up additional funding this year. The company closed a $1.25 million Series A funding from Acumen Fund, Oasis Fund and others and $350,000 from IFC. 

One Indian company did make it to the shortlist of 16 finalists this year — MicroMed, a startup founded by two IIT Kharagpur students (one is Debapriya Chakraborty) who are using microfluids technology to develop more cost-effective and efficient ways to conduct diagnostic tests. Suman Charkraborty, a professor at IIT Kharagpur, mentors the startup. Not much more information is available on them yet.

DFJ has set up a useful page on its site where you can track the progress achieved by last year’s 16 finalists. Go check them out.