The sixteenth annual John Pappajohn Iowa Entrepreneurial Venture Competition awarded $100,000 in cash prizes to nine Iowa startups on Friday, August 12.
The competition is a collaborative project of the Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Centers located at Drake University, Iowa State University, North Iowa Area Community College, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa. The $100,000 in seed funding consists of a $50,000 contribution from John Pappajohn and a $50,000 match from the IEDA.
$40,000 was awarded to first place winner Mitchell Hora of Continuum Ag, $25,000 to second place winner Ray Schmidt & Jessica Vlastaras of Farm Story Meats, and $15,000 to third place winner, Kyle Gernhofer and Charlie Hubbard of DenScore.
Honorable mention awards amounting to $20,000 were given to Jayson Ryner of ReEnvision Ag Inc ($5,000), Dr. Sandeep Laroia of Juggernaut Life Sciences LLC ($5,000), Dr. Shan Jiang and Yifan Li of Janas Materials Inc. ($4,000), Emily Steele of The Hummingbirds ($2,000), and Dakota Hoben of Farmers Risk ($2,000).
Applications for the 2023 John Pappajohn Iowa Entrepreneurial Venture Competition will open in Spring 2023.