These 4 woman founders are slated to pitch at Vinetta Project DC’s first 2020 showcase

The Vinetta Project’s D.C. chapter will kick off its 2020 Venture Challenge next week, which brings together women founders to pitch and get feedback from investors.

The first round of semifinals for the year will be held virtually on May 12. The event will feature four pitches, with two founders moving onto the finals in the fall to vie for $20,000. The organization — now headed by Director Dawn Myers — received 174 applications for this round after extending the deadline for its annual challenge.

Here are the four semifinalists pitching at this month’s event, with company descriptions from websites:

• Jen Linton, founder and CEO of Fenris Digital: This company provides a platform of data and analytics services that repurpose proprietary data sets to improve insurance applications, quoting and underwriting processes.
• Joshnamaithili Seelam, founder and CEO of Kilo Medical Solutions: The medical startup develops a product that can be hooked up to incubators to control lighting for infants.
• Roselle Safran, founder and CEO of KeyCaliber: This startup applies data science to cybersecurity stack data to identify mission-critical assets.
• Irena Volkov, founding director and CEO of Surgicure Technologies: This biotech startup designs medical devices to prevent unnecessary harm during surgical procedures and healing processes.

The event will kick off on the 12th at 6 p.m. Pitches will be judged by Seth Goldman, CEO of Urban Stems; Jeff Grass, CEO of HUNGRY; Aia Sarycheva, investor at Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund; and Betsy Blustone, commercial discovery lead at P&G Ventures.