Wilmington-based Brand Assurance was named Tuesday as one of six tech startups in the state to secure funding from the NC IDEA foundation.
 
The first firm from the Port City to win one of the competitive grants, Brand Assurance will get $50,000 from the organization. The company targets its software platform primarily to apartment developments, helping them protect their online reputations by managing and tracking reviews.
 
Jim Kittridge, founder and CEO of Brand Assurance, which also was named the technology category winner in this year’s Coastal Entrepreneur Awards, said the firm would use the funds to speed up its growth in the multifamily apartment industry.

He said the company is adding functionality to its product to help with the reading of collected data.

"Instead of an executive reading 200 surveys each month, they get a simple report that makes sense of all of that data and insight into their operations," Kittridge said in a statement Tuesday. "We are also integrating with the largest apartment property management software solution to reduce our operating expenses as well as improve our solution."
 
A private foundation, NC IDEA awards grants through its spring and fall competitions, and since its inception in 2006  has awarded over $4.2 million to 104 companies across the state, according to a news release.
 
Surgilum, which develops surgical and other medical tools for eye surgeons, was the other Wilmington company included as a finalist in this fall’s grant cycle. The rest of the finalists hailed from the Triangle area.
 
The process drew 130 applications from across the state, and the nine finalists made in-person pitches earlier this month to help reviewers decide the six winners.
 
Besides Brand Assurance, the other winners announced Tuesday in the fall grant cycle were:

• Durham-based Brim, a productivity network to connect people in remote locations
• Chapel Hill-based MV Track, which measures head impact and rotation to give health providers and athletic trainers data to help decide if athletes need to be checked for concussions
• Chapel Hill-based Rheomics, a developer of tools to improve sensitivity of blood diagnostics
• Raleigh-based SeaChange Technologies, which is coming up with technology for water purification and desalination
• and Chapel Hill-based Tom & Jenny’s, founded by a dentist and her husband and maker of an all-natural, sugar-free caramel candy that is performing strongly in taste-testers over caramels containing sugar