Four Austin Startups Chosen to Advance in the 1776 Challenge Cup

Four Austin startups will go on to compete in the 1776 Challenge Cup Competition.

The winners include PenPal Schools in the education category, Lucelo Technology in the energy & sustainability category, Keet Software in health category and StormPins in the transportation and cities category.

Several Austin startups competed at the Capital Factory Thursday night in the Austin regional Challenge Cup. The winners advance to the global Challenge Cup competition to be held in Washington, D.C. in May. That event will feature 64 startups from 16 regions. They will compete for $650,000 in prizes.

“Last year, seven startups from Austin advanced to the Challenge Cup global finals and Houston-based Water Lens, which competed at the Austin Challenge Cup, was named the American winner of the Energy competition,” according to new release.

“Austin has become a leading hub for innovators who are leveraging their creativity to drive positive change in complex, entrenched industries,” Evan Burfield, co-founder of 1776, the global incubator and seed fund, said in a news release. “We’re proud of the extraordinary talent and innovation displayed tonight, demonstrating once again that great ideas with the potential to reshape our world are emerging outside Silicon Valley—and that Austin is a place where groundbreaking ideas are growing and flourishing.”