U.S. Army selects 20 firms for xTechSearch 4.0 technology prize competition.

On Jan.29, the U.S. Army announced the selection of 20 small business and technology firms to advance to Phase III of the xTechSearch 4.0 technology prize competition. xTechSearch is an Army-sponsored competition focused on finding technologies with both defense and commercial applications that have been developed by American technology entrepreneurs and small businesses, Signal reports.

Counter-drone system (Picture source: DroneShield)

“The 20 selected entrepreneurs and companies presented incredible capabilities and systems that we would have not otherwise seen or been able to support had it not been for Army xTechSearch,” Bruce D. Jette, the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, says in the written announcement.

The following firms were selected to advance to the xTechSearch Phase III event in Huntsville, Alabama, in March:
. Battle Sight Technologies of Dayton, Ohio
. Bounce Imaging of Buffalo, New York
. DroneShield LLC of Warrenton, Virginia
. FastVDO LLC of Melbourne, Florida
. FLITE Material Sciences US Inc. of Somerville, Massachusetts
. GeneCapture Inc. of Huntsville, Alabama
. Geopipe of New York
. Inductive Ventures of Marietta, Georgia
. IoTAI Inc. of Fremont, California
. Kericure, Inc. of Wesley Chapel, Florida
. LumiShield Technologies Inc. of Pittsburgh
. Lynq Technologies Inc. of Brooklyn, New York
. MEI Micro Inc. of Addison, Texas
. Multiscale Systems Inc. of Worcester, Massachusetts
. NeuroFlow Inc. of Philadelphia
. NanoSystems Laboratory (nLab) of Chicago
. Novaa Ltd. of Dublin, Ohio
. Passenger Inc. of Austin, Texas
. Primal Space Systems of Raleigh, North Carolina
. Vita Inclinata Technologies of Broomfield, Colorado

In Phase III, participants will provide a venture capital-style presentation discussing their business plan, product development plan, the results of any customer discovery with the Army and commercial users, and what they would present at a live proof-of-concept demonstration if selected for Phase IV. Up to 12 participants with the highest-ranking business plan and proof-of-concept demonstration proposal will receive a prize of $120,000. They will have six months to prepare their xTechSearch proof-of-concept demonstrations.