Valley Venture Mentors to Award $150,000 to Startups Tonight

SPRINGFIELD — Today, May 24, Valley Venture Mentors (VVM) will host more than 450 people to celebrate the achievements of 35 startups participating in the fourth VVM Startup Accelerator program. The awards event will gather community influencers, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and business leaders at the MassMutual Center starting at 5 p.m. for an evening celebrating the local entrepreneurial renaissance in Western Mass.

VVM’s curated group of judges hail from notable venture-capital and angel funds locally and nationally, such as Golden Seeds, the Opportunity Hub, VentureWell, DreamFunded, Springfield Venture Fund, Reinventure Fund, Petros CT Fund, and River Valley Investors. These active investors, who are deeply entrenched in the startup ecosystem, will split $150,000 among the top 12 finalists as they see fit, with a maximum of $50,000 per startup.