One company makes phone cases to fit emergency medicine and another develops communication software for the health care industry. Two others are involved in developing additive manufacturing industry capabilities.
They all have won the Youngstown Business Incubator’s and the Burton D. Morgan Foundation AMPED competition.
AMPED will provide funding to the four startup companies as they meet specific milestones. The recipients are Hot End Works of Oberlin, $40,000; Strangpresse of Youngstown, $25,000; Case.MD of Kent, $20,000; and MedaSync of Youngstown, $20,000.
“Because of the alignment with America Makes, [the competition is] important work from a technological standpoint,” said Barb Ewing, chief operations officer at YBI.
This is the second annual AMPED competition YBI and the foundation have hosted. This time, there were 15 applicants and eight were asked to pitch their ideas. Although there were fewer applicants this year, the quality of applicants was higher, Ewing said. The company that received the most in funding, Hot End Works, specializes in 3-D printing with advanced materials such as alumina ceramics. Printing with these materials is rare, its founders Jessica Whittaker and Ben Becker explained.
“These materials are used in aerospace and defence,” Whittaker said.
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