The ARK Challenge is a 14-week mentorship-driven business accelerator based in Fayetteville. The program began Aug. 15.
The project was one of 20 selected nationwide to receive federal funding to advance regional competitiveness.
It is designed to recruit and help information technology companies grow in Northwest Arkansas in three core clusters: retail, transportation and logistics, and food processing.
The ARK launched in March as a Winrock International initiative with partners the University of Arkansas and Northwest Arkansas Community College.
The Economic Development Administration, the Small Business Administration and Employment Training Administration, as well as Winrock International, Gravity Ventures and Fund for Arkansas’ Future, provide funding. Applications came from 14 countries. Each selected startup receives $18,333 in seed money to cover living expenses while building a prototype.
The ARK receives a 6 percent equity stake in each participating company.
The project received $2.1 million to fund the camp for two years. This is the first year.
This year’s participants are:
Agricultural Food Systems - Hugh Lawson HembreeV, Jose David Andrade and Andrew Kirk Dennison of Siloam Springs
Mass Vector - Ben Hundley and Adam Vanderbush of Fayetteville
CayMay Education - Lincoln Vu of Boca Raton, Fla.
Btiques - Sara Beck and Will Carter of Fayetteville
Earn and Play - Pablo Arellano Jr. and Colin Klayer of Cincinnati
YumYumNet - Jonathan “Yoni” Trope and Pavan “Niel”Malhotra of New York
EpicPledge - Weiting Tan and Anthony Chew of Singapore, via Santiago, Chile
MineWhat - Janakiram Ganesan and Pavan Kumar Thiruvuru Vijayan, Bangalore, India
Sooligan - Natasia Malaihollo and Nikka Umil of Berkeley, Calif.
Farmeto - Colin Shaw, David Tanner and Sam Friday of Fayetteville and Rogers
Refurrl - Zackery Hill,Alex Chalupka and Jonathan Peoples of Conway
SpareTime - Aron Shelton and Alyssa Snyder of Fayetteville
StackSearch - Mark Brandon and Sloan Ahrens of Fayetteville
Streamix - Chuong Nguyen, Josh Pham and Kenny Cason of Fayetteville
Truckily - Derek Kean and Matthew Berkland of Kansas City, Mo.
Business, Pages 59 on 09/23/2012