InvestMaryland Challenge nears 100 entries, all applications due Dec. 13 [VIDEO]

The InvestMaryland Challenge, the “national seed and early-stage business competition hosted by the state of Maryland” set to  “award $300,000 in grants and a host of business services to companies in the life sciences and high tech industries,” is closing in on 100 entries.

At the time of this writing, entries to the challenge have perhaps surpassed that number. According to MDBIZNews, the “Department of Business and Economic Development [DBED] had received 95 entries for the business competition as of noon” on Nov. 14.
Apply to the InvestMaryland Challenge. Applications are due Dec. 13.
Overall, the InvestMaryland Challenge is just one component of Maryland state’s larger task to dole out $84 million raised earlier in 2012 for InvestMaryland, a funding source for “early-, mid- and late-stage growth companies.” According to the InvestMaryland website, the $84 million is being dished out accordingly:

• Venture capital firms receive 67 percent.
• The Maryland Venture Fund, the “state-funded and early-stage equity fund within DBED,” receives 24.75 percent, which is then invested into emerging companies in the state.
• And 8.25 percent goes toward the Equity Participation Investment Program, “designed to expand business ownership by socially or economically disadvantaged entrepreneurs.”

Watch a video of some of the InvestMaryland Challenge judges talking about the competition:
http://www.youtube.com/v/bfYWt2eAhDs?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0