NEW YORK and PITTSBURGH, Aug. 3,
2015 /PRNewswire/ -- UpPrize has named Conversant Labs,
Marinus Analytics and PHRQL as the winners of BNY Mellon's
$1 million Social Innovation
Challenge. The winning ideas will expand digital access for
visually-impaired people, help government agencies fight human
trafficking, and ensure poor families have access to healthier
foods. UpPrize, a unique collaboration between BNY Mellon, the BNY
Mellon Foundation of Southwestern
Pennsylvania and The Forbes Funds, combines impact investing
with a research-based social innovation challenge.
The first-place prize is a combination of a $200,000 investment and $200,000 in grants. Each runner-up prize is an
investment of $150,000, plus a grant
of $50,000. All three UpPrize
challenge winners, as well as the competition's five other
finalists received two months of personalized support during the
competition, including $10,000 seed
grants. In total, the BNY Mellon Social Innovation Challenge has
awarded approximately $1 million in
investments, grants and technical assistance.
UpPrize was developed to bridge the gap between the nonprofit
and entrepreneurial communities as well as to increase the supply
of investment-ready solutions targeted to address critical social
challenges.
"We believe social finance investments are key to enabling
positive change in society, and this year have formalized a
firm-wide effort to help investors in their pursuit of social
finance opportunities," said Don
Heberle, president, BNY Mellon of Pennsylvania. "UpPrize, the BNY Mellon social
innovation challenge, encourages impact investing activity in
southwestern Pennsylvania, a
region that's home to a robust nonprofit community and a growing
technology sector. It links the private sector with the
Pittsburgh region's nonprofits to
identify breakthrough innovations that address critical needs and
service gaps, while also producing meaningful and measurable
financial benefits."
First-place winner Conversant Labs is led by Chris Maury, an entrepreneur who founded the
company when he received a diagnosis of a degenerative eye disease.
Conversant seeks to dramatically improve the quality of life for
the visually impaired. The company's most recent application, "Say
Shopping," has been licensed by a well-known national retailer as
its exclusive voice-enabled retail app.
Second-place winner Marinus Analytics, led by Carnegie Mellon University alumna Emily Kennedy, has created a crime-fighting tool
that enables law enforcement agencies, criminal intelligence
centers, and victim services organizations to fight human
trafficking through investigative, machine learning software and
big data technology. Kennedy is actively exploring this technology
for use in other areas of law enforcement, including the online
resale of counterfeit goods.
Rounding out the top three, PHRQL (pronounced "freckle") brings
its health and nutrition-based educational tool for grocery store
consumers in 16 states to the food pantry, where choices take on
added significance and consequence. A food pantry may be a family's
only meal. For at-risk populations, PHRQL's tool has the potential
to educate families and reduce emergency healthcare costs.
"Our top finishers represent the creative and passionate teams
of Pittsburgh-area entrepreneurs
who are working to solve some of the most pressing social issues in
our communities," said Kenya
Boswell, president, BNY Mellon Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania. "We are proud to
support and invest in these innovators as they partner with local
nonprofits to deliver even stronger social and financial
returns."
The UpPrize challenges were the product of months of research
with more than 150 local nonprofit practitioners. All of the
UpPrize finalists worked closely with at least one regional
nonprofit as showcased during the final pitch event made live
before an audience of more than 350 innovators, investors and
entrepreneurs gathered for the UpPrize finale event at the New
Hazlett Theater in Pittsburgh's
historic North Side. UpPrize finalists met a rigorous set of
criteria that assessed both the feasibility of the business model
and the social impact potential of the product. The winners of the
UpPrize were determined by a panel of judges who evaluated the
finalists' ideas to determine prize funding, which included a
combination of investments and grants to bring their products to
market.
"UpPrize connects innovators to this market of service providers
who are hungry for innovation that will enable them to accomplish
their missions more effectively and with even greater impact," said
Kate Dewey, president of The Forbes
Funds.
UpPrize received more than 100 applications from talented
Pittsburgh-area entrepreneurs.
Leading up to the selection of the eight finalists, 20
semi-finalists met with the Challenge's judges and advisers for
in-person interviews. UpPrize judges and advisers represent local
and national experts from a variety of sectors including
government, for-profit, nonprofit and investment communities.
"UpPrize is truly a community endeavor," said Matt Zieger, vice-president of The Forbes Funds.
"We have been humbled by the generous support we've received,
specifically from our advisory team, as well as number of other
partners. Pittsburgh has all the
pieces needed to be a national leader in socially-focused
innovation, and UpPrize demonstrates the social impact potential of
these groups when they come together."
To learn more about the UpPrize winners and the overall
competition, visit UpPrize.org.
BNY Mellon offers a wide range of products and services that
help mainstream investors meet their return/risk goals while
considering the environmental, social and governance (ESG) impact
of their investments. Learn more about social finance at BNY
Mellon, bnymellon.com/socialfinance.
BNY Mellon is a global investments company dedicated to helping
its clients manage and service their financial assets throughout
the investment lifecycle. Whether providing financial services for
institutions, corporations or individual investors, BNY Mellon
delivers informed investment management and investment services in
35 countries and more than 100 markets. As of June 30, 2015, BNY Mellon had $28.6 trillion in assets under custody and/or
administration, and $1.7 trillion in
assets under management. BNY Mellon can act as a single point of
contact for clients looking to create, trade, hold, manage,
service, distribute or restructure investments. BNY Mellon is the
corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE:
BK). Additional information is available on www.bnymellon.com.
Follow us on Twitter @BNYMellon or visit our newsroom at
www.bnymellon.com/newsroom for the latest company news.
The Forbes Funds builds the management capacity and impact of
community-based nonprofits individually and collectively. A
supporting organization of the Pittsburgh Foundation, The Forbes
Funds has more than 30 years of experience in providing technical
assistance, research, and leadership to advance a more effective
and sustainable nonprofit sector. Additional information is
available at forbesfunds.org, or on Twitter @theforbesfunds and
@UpPrize.
Contacts:
Lane
Cigna
+ 1 412 234
0575
lane.cigna@bnymellon.com
Rebecca Young
+1 412 394 2616
young@forbesfunds.com
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