Founders Factory awarding seed money to 10x teams

The Founders Factory will award up to $25,000 to select 10X teams during Showcase Day at the Columbus College of Art & Design auditorium from 1 to 4 p.m this afternoon.

The additional seed money will help up to three teams move beyond the 10X acceleration process.  The exact funding amounts will be based on the needs of each team.

“Founders Factory has been extremely active as mentors, lead advisors and investors in 10X since we narrowed down the 120-plus applications to the eight teams that remain in the program now,” says Matt Armstead, partner at Founders Factory. “We’ve seen some grow exponentially in terms of evolving their idea, building prototypes to having live solutions ready to sell.”

Beyond helping those teams that are ready for the next stage of growth, Founders Factory is hoping the money will spur more angel investors, venture capitalists and other funders to invest in the very near future, as to not lose momentum and increase job growth in Central Ohio, he says.

There have been two 10X classes prior to the Fall 2012 class.

“A great win for Columbus and Ohio in general is that, to date, the companies coming out of 10X have already raised over $6 million in additional funding,” he says.

The Founders Factory investment fund is 100 percent private money from its partners. Their goal is to find exceptional ideas and teams, and quickly come to a decision to fund the next great Ohio-based startup.