December 02, 2015
McLean, VA — With its robust expertise in data analytics, Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH), has demonstrated time and time again the power of data insights to predict customer behavior, improve supply chain management, speed time to market, and inform an organization’s most strategic decisions. To encourage budding entrepreneurs to consider the impact that data analytics could have on the future of their own business, Booz Allen announced today that, as part of a gold level sponsorship, it will partner with the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition to create the competition’s first ever Analytics Prize. The $10,000 prize will be given to the team that most effectively uses data analytics to drive innovation and inform business strategy. While the prize money is certainly a significant boost to a start-up, Booz Allen believes that these entrepreneurs will see a much larger return by effectively applying analytics to their business plans.
The MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition began in 1990 as the MIT $10K Entrepreneurship Competition, and has quickly matured into one of the largest and most well-known business plan competitions in the world. To date, the MIT $100K has facilitated the birth of more than 160 companies, which have gone on to raise $1.3 billion in venture capital and build $16 billion in market capitalization. More than 30 MIT $100K startups have been acquired by major companies. Booz Allen has played an active role in the competition for the last two years, with senior executives serving as mentors and judges.
The Booz Allen Analytics Prize will be decided amongst semi-finalists of the Launch phase of the MIT $100K competition, which opens in mid-February 2016. Applications will be evaluated by a team of data scientists from Booz Allen and partner organizations.
“At Booz Allen, we are wholly committed to driving transformative and disruptive innovation through partnerships across the innovation ecosystem. The MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition is the embodiment of that ecosystem,” said Alex Cosmas, Chief Scientist at Booz Allen and a MIT alumnus. “We want to empower entrepreneurs to think strategically about the role that data analytics can play in transforming society.”
“For years Booz Allen has been an invaluable partner to the MIT $100K, and we are thrilled to be working together to offer the Competition’s first ever analytics prize,” said Marc Chalifoux, Managing Director, MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. “As the value of data analytics becomes more pronounced, we hope that the Booz Allen Analytics Prize encourages even more participants to think about how they can leverage data science in new and impactful ways.”
This partnership and award build on Booz Allen’s growing influence in the Boston technology and data analytics community. The firm believes Boston will become the epicenter of data analytics research and is committed to encouraging that growth and building its employee base in the city.
To learn about the MIT $100k Entrepreneurship Competition, visit www.mit100k.org.
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