Resource Roundup: DataTribe Challenge has up to $2M for cyber startups

Resource Roundup is a look at open applications for business and career-building programs around the region. Want to tell us about a program or new opportunity for entrepreneurs and technologists? Email us at baltimore@technical.ly.

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Fulton-based cyber foundry DataTribe is bringing back its competition for cybersecurity and data science startups, with the potential for the winner to receive a $2 million investment.

The DataTribe Challenge seeks to identify pre-Series A companies. Three finalists will be selected to split a $20,000 prize. Then, DataTribe holds a pitch competition, with the winner receiving investment.

“In our four years of putting on this Challenge, we have seen incredibly impressive entrepreneurs and technologies that are charting the future of cyber,” said DataTribe Managing Director John Funge, in a statement. “This year, we look forward to once again providing entrepreneurs a platform to share over-the-horizon technologies with the industry, to gain valuable feedback, and to potentially raise a seed round.”

Applications are open until Oct. 1. According to organizers, the competition is designed for teams with a concept or minimum viable product that is developed to the point where it can draw early adopters.

DataTribe generally works with companies that have technology developed inside the national security and intelligence space, and are seeking to form a startup to bring it to commercial markets. Among the past winners of the competition is Code Dx. After the 2019 win, it was acquired this year by Synops, as part of a string of exits for DataTribe-backed companies. In 2020, cybersecurity risk management platform SightGain won the competition.

Apply by Oct. 1

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Baltimore-based accelerator Conscious Venture Lab opened up applications for a new cohort of startups seeking to build an impact models alongside businesses.

It will be the eighth cohort for the program, which continued to operate virtually in the pandemic through a partnership with Annapolis’ FounderTrac that brought larger cohorts than before. The four-month session will run from January to May of 2022.

Conscious Venture Lab seeks to build businesses that are addressing societal gaps. It is also a program welcoming diverse founders. The programming mixes a curriculum and sessions with leaders in the conscious capitalism space, as well as tailored support for startups. The program could lead to an investment of up to $125,000 per team.

Apply by Oct. 15

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While giving a keynote speech at the Howard County Chamber of Commerce’s 2021 Cyber Risk Management Conference, Gula Tech Foundation cofounder Ron Gula announced the initiative’s fall $1 million grant program.

The latest round of funding focuses around the theme of “confidence in data care.” The foundation will be seeking to provide funding to nonprofits that “provide practical, hands-on or immersive cybersecurity experiences that give confidence to students, teachers, practitioners and political and business leaders.”

We went deep on data care with Gula in a recent interview. It’s a term he wants to use to rebrand cybersecurity to make the act of protecting data more personal, and the industry more inclusive.

“We’ve got to make sure the next generation of kids and veterans is part of this, and make sure people at the board level are thinking about these issues,” said Gula, the former CEO of Columbia cybersecurity firm Tenable before he founded the investment firm and foundation.

Funding applications for those who are helming such efforts will be open from Oct. 1 to Nov. 15.

Apply

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Maryland tech and entrepreneurship support agency TEDCO received a new federal grant that will allow it to help Marylanders seeking grant funding to move innovation forward.

The agency received $125,000 from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Federal and State Technology Partnership Program. With this funding, TEDCO will work with Rockville-based OST Global Solutions and the Small Business Development Center to help small businesses write effective for two federal government grant programs: the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs.

Through its SBIR/STTR Proposal Lab, TEDCO will select a cohort of about 25 companies to support. Programming includes workshops, in-person meetings and events. Applications are open through Dec. 15, and will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

“In collaboration with our partners, we’re taking a holistic approach to educating companies that sometimes get left behind,” said Kimberly Mozingo, director of federal programs at TEDCO, in a statement. “We’ll teach skills that provide a lifelong benefit and introduce them to TEDCO resources such as the industry experts who review their proposals and connect them with the broader Maryland ecosystem of support. Thus far, we’ve increased the win rate for women-owned businesses almost sevenfold, and I’d like to see us do that for everyone in the cohort.”

Apply by Dec. 15

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In the most recent newsletter from UpSurge Baltimore, we spotted an opportunity to bring innovation in front of Baltimore-based corporate leader T. Rowe Price. According to a form, the Inner Harbor-based investment management firm is launching a new event called Moonshot.

The spring 2022 event aims to bring “together the greatest ideas from its network of innovators and entrepreneurs of color to the notice of the T. Rowe Price family, including its network of associates and partners who may be investors and donors,” according to the company. Info sessions will be held Sept. 10 and 13.