EyeVerify crowned U.S. champion for Get in the Ring competition

EyeVerify has advanced to the final round of the “Get in the Ring” entrepreneurship competition, and has emerged as the national winner in the U.S.

Picked from a submission class of 283 startups, EyeVerify was awarded $10,000 as the top U.S. finisher, and was also chosen as the “audience favorite.”

EyeVerify is now off to Rotterdam, the Netherlands to compete with seven other international finalists, selected from 30 nations, for a chance to secure angel investment from a potentional pool of approximately $1.4 million.

Chris Barnett, EyeVerify EVP, said one of the reasons they won was because Rush explained their story better than the competitors. “Plus substantively we have a couple of points about our technology that are unique: it’s patented, the whole category is patented. Nobody else can do Eyeprints but EyeVerify,” he said. “Secondly, the pain point that we solve — passwords and security — is a pain point that every single person feels if they have a phone or computer. Many startups have solutions that are applicable to a niche market segment. But everybody feels our pain and says, ‘save me!’ Also, the market opportunity for EyeVerify is tremendous. When you look at the use cases where people need secure authentication or a password, then you look at the 10-15 ways customers can apply our technology, and everyone gets it. There’s a whole buffet of market opportunities and audience members gravitate to the one that speaks to them the most.”

Get in the Ring was founded in 2009 by the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship in the Netherlands. The international finals are held each November during Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Reported previously, EyeVerify closed its Series A financing round of $2.3 million in May of this year. Participants in the round included returning investors Think Big Ventures and Nebraska Angels, plus new investors including Mid America Angels

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competition  |  eyeverify  |  iris