Where Over $1M in LAUNCH Festival Prize Money Is Going

[ LAUNCH founder Jason Calacanis (right) stands with Minbox founders Michael Lawlor (left) and Alexander Mimran (middle), who received a slot at TechStars after launching at the 2012 LAUNCH Festival. ]

When the LAUNCH Festival kicked off on March 7, we had over $1M in investment money pledged. Thanks to members of the Grand Jury who had not previously committed money -- and existing investors upping their amounts -- that number climbed past $1.4M when we held the closing ceremony on March 8.

Here we list who has pledged how much to which startup(s) -- a total of $1,069,000 so far.

Best Design 1.0 winner Minbox is at $318k in pledges, Best Overall 1.0 winner Space Monkey at $276k, Best Technology 1.0 winner Captricity at $125k, Best Overall 2.0 winner Alltuition at $75k and Best Business Model 1.0 winner Appstack at $75k.

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LAUNCH Festival 2012 Winners

[ Space Monkey won Best Overall in the 1.0 competition. LAUNCH founder Jason Calacanis (far left) and Brad Gerstner, founder of LAUNCH '11 winner Room 77 (far right) presented the award. More photos of the LAUNCH Festival here. ]

The LAUNCH Festival Grand Jury chose 12 winners in all on March 8 -- six in the 1.0 competition, five in the 2.0 competition, and one overall winner from the DEMO Pit. Here they are by category.

For a complete list of official competitors, check out our spreadsheet.


1.0  WINNERS
These are brand-new companies that received no press or blog coverage prior to launching at the LAUNCH Festival. 

Best Overall   
Space Monkey

Best Design   
Minbox

Best Technology   
Captricity

Best Business Model   
Appstack

Best Presentation   
That's Suspicious Behavior

Diamond in the Rough   
Copper
   

2.0 WINNERS
These are existing companies that launched a new product, a new version of their product or pivoted.
  
Best Overall
Alltuition

Best Design   
Wanderfly

Best Technology   
YouEye

Best Business Model   
Docstoc

Best Presentation   
Vocre
    
    
DEMO PIT
The DEMO Pit -- which had 200 companies this year, including the 42 official competitors -- was open to all startups that were less than 18 months old. Some startups launched in the DEMO Pit while others promoted their existing product.

Best Overall
Scoot Networks

Who Launched at the 2012 LAUNCH Festival

[ Yossi Vardi (left) and Jason Calacanis (right) chat with President Shimon Peres of Israel on day one. ]

So much excitement and awesome startups -- here's your complete list of every company that has launched so far, and here are the LAUNCH Festival photos we've uploaded. Both are getting updated, so please check back often.

UPDATE: We have opened the DEMO Pit to the public for the rest of the day! Just come to 635 8th st. And you can stay for the closing party, too.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

[ Image via creative commons license from 401k. ]

Our good friend, visionary entrepreneur and angel investor Bill Lee has stepped up again and saved the day! His $100k commitment to invest this year puts the LAUNCH Festival at a whopping $1,039,000 in prize money/investments. Bill will join the Grand Jury for part of the event, and this is the second year he'll be investing in startups at LAUNCH.

$1,039,000 in prize money.

Wow.

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LAUNCH Prizes Top $1M!

UPDATE [ 3/6/2012 ]: Angel investor Bill Lee is in for $100k, total is now $1,039,000!

By Jason Calacanis

I'm thrilled to announce that we've added $250k $400k to our total prize money at the LAUNCH Festival.

First, we added $100k to the AngelPad investment by way of a miscommunication. We originally thought AngelPad, a leading accelerator here in San Francisco, was offering $20k to the company they accepted.

It turns out they are offering $120k.

Oops!

Additionally, three five angel investors have agreed to commit $50k each in investment to the 50 startups on stage.

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