TechCrunch’s Battlefield is a proven springboard for startups destined for great things. Fact. We ran the data and we’ll take you through it below. But before we get to that, we’re announcing that it’s time to apply for the next Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt NY, May 5-7. The application deadline is February 20, 2014.
TechCrunch writers and editors will read each and every one of those applications and select approximately 30 of the most innovative, under-the-radar applicants to appear onstage at Disrupt in New York City.
The entrepreneurs will pitch world-class judges from the venture and entrepreneurial worlds. The winner will take home the Disrupt Cup and a check for $50,000. Along the way, the final 30 contestants receive world-class coaching on their pitches, exhibition space at Disrupt, feedback from some of the biggest names in tech, and invites to awesome parties.
When they take the stage to make their pitches, they will do so before a rapt audience of 1,500 people in the auditorium and tens of thousands more watching the live stream. There is no platform like Battlefield to showcase a startup.
But what happens to these companies after launching at the Battlefield? With a little help from our friends at CrunchBase, we’ve pulled the data from 2007-2013 across all of our TC-40, TC-50 and Disrupt competitions. (Note, our Hardware Battlefield this month at CES is not included in this analysis.)
Since 2007, 350 companies have participated in the Battlefield, or its precursors, TC-40 and TC-50. On average, these companies were just under a year old at the time they entered the competition and had taken on just over $2.4 million in funding. Recently, we’ve trended toward accepting earlier stage companies, with less funding in the bank. In 2007, the average raise for a company prior to participating in the Battlefield was $4.9 million, compared with just over $1 million raised in 2013.
View the Original article
