Newark-based 360VR Technology wins $50K at Maryland startup competition

Newark-based 360VR Technology founders Sury Gupta and James Massaquoi spend a lot of time traveling to pitch competitions around the country to raise funding for their first-responders-focused VR startup. Last week, the startup made a big impact at two pitch competitions right here in the Mid-Atlantic region: The Next Gen HQ Startup Summit HQ PITCH! Event in Philadelphia and the Salisbury University Shore Hatchery Startup Competition in Maryland.

360VR won first place at NextGen, and landed a $50,000 award at the Shore Hatchery startup competition, “the largest sum in business funding awarded by the competition in the six years it has been hosted,” said the founders in a LinkedIn post. “Since beginning last year, we are humbled for the experiences gained through participating in numerous competitions.”

360VR, which was developed by Gupta and Massaquoi at University of Delaware’s Horn Entreprenurship, won the $20,000 Hen Hatch pitch competition at UD this year. In addition, they’ve participated in Student Startup Madness Startup of the Year at SXSW in Austin; TCU Values and Ventures Competition in Fort Worth, Texas; Startup World Cup in Boston; and UC Davis Big Bang Competition Finals in Davis, California, among others.

The startup’s model uses VR tech to create digital 3D models of buildings that serve a large number of people that can be used by firefighters and other first responders in the event of emergency situations such as fires and active shooters.

“It’s digital, and it’s accessible on you mobile phone or website or tablet, so they’d have it whenever they need it as many times as they need it,” Gupta said in an interview with Technical.ly in May.

Clients include UD’s Bob Carpenter Center.