September 2020 Gap Fund Recipients
IDEA ventures continue to impress, as three outstanding endeavors, Hatchtrack, Hot Date Kitchen, and Moosiko, earned Gap Funding during September. Each venture pitched IDEA’s Advisory Board and earned an investment from the Gap Fund, a non-equity grant reserved for Go stage ventures, which allows companies to receive up to $10,000 per round.
Hatchtrack has created a real-time egg incubator monitoring system that reduces egg mortality by relaying data to the egg hatchers. The product consists of two parts, one being an IoT enabled hardware component that sits in the incubator itself, and the other being an app that relays real-time egg incubation data to the egg hatchers. The venture plans to use the funding to invest in tooling and start an initial production run of 2,000 units. The company has tested its technology and is ready for an initial production run to commence commercialization.
Hot Date Kitchen produces a unique snack based on Medjool dates. It is made with low added sugar, simple ingredients, and is vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, and nut-free. The venture plans to utilize Gap Funding for an initial production run of 3000 units as well as some product testing and printed marketing materials. Hot Date Kitchen is expected to go from 3 pre-order customers to 50 active wholesale accounts.
Moosiko, an online guitar learning platform, helps beginner guitar students quickly learn new songs and skills through a step-by-step, adaptive learning process. The company targets K-12 guitar teachers and enables class management tools in addition to learning aids for the students. Moosiko has a library of 210 songs and has run pilots in 12 schools with 500+ students on the platform during the past five months. The venture will use the funding to include a ukulele offering to the Moosiko platform due to the large number of requests they have received from teachers and districts.
IDEA Gap Funding is a non-equity educational grant available to ventures in the GO stage of IDEA’s process. Applicants may apply on a bi-monthly basis where their business plans are reviewed by IDEA’s student Investment Committee upon being selected to pitch plans to IDEA’s Advisory Board. Applicants may receive up to $10,000 in funding.
