IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ingram Micro Cloud today announced the winners of the Chicago and San Francisco Comet Competition judging events, congratulating Chicago-based Invoiced and San Francisco-based Balbix. Both are now one step closer to potentially winning the USD $1 million cash grand prize and securing their position as a leading innovator in the cloud ecosystem.
Ingram Micro’s Comet Competition provides aspiring local independent software vendors (ISVs) and startups access to a wider global audience. Runners-up from Chicago are Morpheus Data, Coreview and Cyglass, and from San Francisco, Blue Hexagon, Air Slate and Nerdio. Each runner-up receives $50K in funding and free entry to Ingram Micro’s Cloud Summit in May 2020.
Ingram Micro’s International Comet Competition is designed to identify highly innovative business-to-business (B2B) software innovators from across the globe whose products have clear applications for the technology channel. The Comet Competition plays a significant role in Ingram Micro Cloud’s mission to accelerate innovation and empower the world’s future problem solvers to grow and tackle businesses’ biggest problems. By accessing Ingram Micro’s Cloud ecosystem and channel partners, startups can diversify revenue, enabling repeatable, scalable and profitable growth.
“It’s exciting and encouraging to view so many highly innovative and forward-thinking early-stage companies at every stage of this global competition. We (Ingram Micro Cloud and our judges) were collectively presented with a difficult decision when choosing the winners of our local competitions to progress to the next round of the Global competition to compete for $1M. We were overwhelmed and delighted at the quality and quantity of such impressive startups who applied to this year’s competition,” said Michael Kenney, head of strategy and business development for Ingram Micro Cloud. “Our mission at Ingram Micro Cloud is to help identify and bring to market the best technology in the industry, and it’s great to be in a position where we can advise such exciting global startups such as Invoiced and Balbix at the beginning of their journeys. To come out on top in the final round, our winners will have to convince the judges that their technology is not only viable, but has what it takes to mature into a potentially thriving and profitable business.”
Following their win, Jared King, Co-Founder & CEO of Invoiced, commented, “We are so thrilled to have made it through to the final and further our relationship with Ingram Micro Cloud. Invoiced uses Accounts Receivable Automation to help companies get paid faster and save valuable time, and this competition will help us raise awareness amongst businesses and accelerate our push into the channel.”
Chris Griffith, VP Business Development and Alliance at Balbix, said, “We are delighted to have been named the winner of the San Francisco Comet Competition. Balbix’s collaboration with Ingram Micro Cloud will help bring cybersecurity posture transformation to a much broader set of enterprises, reducing their risk of breach by 95% or more.”
In-person judging events occurred in 16 international cities throughout November and December. Each event culminated with one winner and three runners up, all of whom receive significant go-to-market funding, training and resources to grow. All city-based winners and runners-up will join Ingram Micro Cloud at Cloud Summit 2020 in Miami Beach, Florida, May 12-14 to compete for the final Global Grand Prize of $1 million. Facing a panel of judges consisting of distinguished founders, executives and industry influencers, contestants will be evaluated on their vision for the future, potential in their channel and ecosystem readiness.
About Ingram Micro Cloud
At Ingram Micro Cloud™ we view cloud not just as a single technology, but as a foundational platform to run and drive a whole new way of doing business. By leveraging our platforms and ecosystem, cloud service providers, telecom companies, resellers and enterprises can quickly transform and get up and running in the cloud within minutes, with little to no investment. Our portfolio includes vetted security, communication and collaboration, business applications, cloud management services and infrastructure solutions designed to help clients monetize and manage the entire lifecycle of cloud and digital services, infrastructure and IoT subscriptions. For more information, please visit: www.IngramMicroCloud.com.
