Five companies will be making presentations Thursday morning as part of the third ARK Challenge Demo Day at the Great Hall at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.
The public can attend from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. by registering at this link.
Refreshments and lunch will be served.
The five presenting startups come from the retail, logistics and cybersecurity sectors, and Rick Webb, senior vice president of global business process at Walmart, will be speaking on entrepreneurship and future of Walmart tech.
Additionally, updates will be provided by alumni from previous ARK Challenge participants.
Jeannette Balleza Collins, The ARK Challenge director, said more than 70 teams applied to participate in the challenge this time, and the five teams presenting on Thursday are more mature startups than in previous years. The five startups have gained traction in either another business or their current product. The ARK Fund 2014 has invested $50,000 in seed funding into each of the five teams.
Additionally, Demo Day is occurring near the middle of the 12-week program rather than at the end. The program started in late July.
The teams presenting on Thursday are:
1) HIPAA Risk Management, Cloud-enabled online data security tool used by healthcare organizations to protect electronic health information. The company already has about 100 customers.
2) Kernel (creator of Neo network risk assessment bot), hardware/software solution offering cybersecurity made simple for small business owners.
3) Skosay, a private two-way feedback channel for customers and business that digitizes traditional comment card processes.
4) HumanLink, online community for matching families and elders with quality in-home caregivers.
5) CrowdToGo, on-time crowdsourced local deliveries.
