As some of you have surely heard, Qoints was selected from over 11,000 applicants as a finalist in the prestigious 43North Business Idea Competition (the world’s largest business idea competition). We claimed a prize of $250,000 USD after competing in Buffalo at the end of October, and shared the stage with some of the world’s most promising startups including two others from Canada.
43North awards $5 million in cash prizes each year to some of the best and brightest entrepreneurs and startups from around the globe. In addition to a piece of the cash prize pool, Qoints will receive incubator space in Buffalo, mentorship opportunities and support from local stakeholders. 43North is part of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion initiative, which is driving new economic opportunities throughout Buffalo and Western New York.
The result of this win is that Buffalo will represent the beginning of our US expansion – we will begin working and hiring in the Buffalo area in January 2016. The majority of our customer traction has been outside of Canada and we are excited for this opportunity to establish our market position in the US, and to scale out our efforts to provide Digital Marketing Intelligence to brand marketers around the world. Check out the numerous press mentions listed here, and read more about 43North on their site. If you would like to receive email updates about Digital Market Intelligence (DMI) and Qoints’ growth development, register for our newsletter here!