At a new event at this year's BookExpo America, a handful of publishing startups will be given the chance to win venture capital funding. The BookExpo Startup Challenge will take place on the Thursday of the fair, May 29, and, in it, competing startups will be able to pitch their business to a judging panel offering investment rewards up to $10,000.
The startup event will take place in a new section of the trade show floor, called Startup Alley at BEA, and the judges will include veterans of the venture capital world, as well as the publishing business. Among the judges are David Roland, chief venture capital officer at ICG Ventures; Dawn Barber, co-founder of NY Tech Meetup; and Dominique Raccah, publisher of Sourcebooks. The top prize, of $10,000, will be provided by ICG Ventures, a subsidiary of Ingram Conent Group and Sourcebooks will back a second prize for $5,000.
Speaking about Startup Challenge, BEA event director Steve Rosato said it's something that "is poised to be a fantastic event for BEA and the industry that will put a spotlight on innovation and technology." Librify, which helped to organize last year's Publishing Hackathon, is working with BEA on the new event.
