PORTLAND, Maine — Friday night, three Maine companies will compete for $100,000 in a pitch contest that will cap off the weeklong Maine Startup and Create Week conference, geared toward entrepreneurs and early stage businesses.
The mobile app developer Chimani and residential composting service Garbage to Garden made it through multiple pitch rounds during the televised show “ Greenlight Maine” and the Orono-based Revolution Research will compete as the “wild card” in the contest, after amassing the most votes in an online poll.
Chimani, which develops smartphone guides to national parks, recently released applications for all 59 national parks; Garbage to Garden recently announced plans to expand to the Boston area, after growing revenue 40 percent in 2015; and Revolution Research has completed development of a fire retardant version of its organic home insulation, made from wood fiber and organic polymers.
Nadir Yildrim, Revolution’s CEO, told the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday that the company’s shifted its business plan from manufacturing the insulation itself to licensing the technology or partnering with another manufacturer. Yildrim founded the company with Alex Chasse, based on his research at the University of Maine.
The show’s finale comes a day before it will hear pitches from about 50 hopeful entrepreneurs in preparation for its second season. A panel of judges will hear those pitches Saturday at Husson University’s Portland campus, according to Con Fullam, one of the show’s creators.
In its second season, the show will again offer a prize of at least $100,000. That amount could increase, according to its producers, as part of a new partnership with the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.
The show’s producers announced the new partnership Thursday and said that the DECD would help expand its statewide reach.
In April, Fullam told the Bangor Daily News that aside from the grand prize offering, participants on the show had raised a collective $1.2 million from investors who discovered their companies through the program.
Each show features a head-to-head business pitch before a panel of judges, leading into a separate phase where businesses workshop their ideas.
The grand finale pitch event takes place Friday, starting at 6 p.m. in Portland’s Merrill Auditorium.