Iowa group invests $150,000 in Accelerator startups

The first class of startups to leave the Iowa Startup Accelerator isn't leaving empty handed.

Ten teams graduated this week from the Cedar Rapids-based accelerator, which put the startups through 94 days of long hours, hundreds of meetings and crunch time to develop a company.

All ten pitched their companies Thursday night during the Iowa Startup Accelerator's Launch Day, which concluded the three-month program.

Built by Iowa, a group that invests in early-stage companies, announced Thursday that it will give $50,000 each to two of the teams leaving the accelerator, following through on a pledge made earlier this week.

The group chose Lendedu, a student loan comparative marketplace created by two Delaware students, and HowFactory, a Cedar Falls startup that created an online way for companies to manage training and instruction materials.

Two of Built by Iowa's founders raised the stakes, however, by pledging an additional $50,000 Thursday night that they will spread across the other teams.

"We knew this would be a tough decision, we had no idea it would be as tough as it was," said Adam Ingersoll, co-founder of Built by Iowa. "Ultimately, we would be bad investors if we weren't betting on every one of these companies."

That investment comes on top of $20,000 in seed money each of the ten received by joining the accelerator.

Punctil, a startup from California but now out of Fairfield that created an app to eliminate patient wait times, also said Thursday it had signed a $250,000 contract with MediRevv, the Coralville-based health care company.