AUSTIN, Texas — MassChallenge awarded $500,000 to be divvied up between five startup companies to jump-start their businesses Thursday.

  • Group awarded $500K to Texas startup companies
  • 14 companies selected to pitch their ideas
  • 5 companies won award

This is the global nonprofit's third accelerator program for startup companies in Texas since 2017. The organization picked 74 Texas startups to connect to resources, mentors and even investors. Out of those companies, 14 were selected to pitch their companies for a shot at the $500,000 grand prize.

On Thursday, five of those companies were selected to win part of that money: Collective Liberty, Mens Gold Boxx, Olifant Medical, teleCalm and Traxyl.

Even though most companies weren't able to get a piece of the prize money, MassChallenge makes sure the experience is still a valuable investment. Grant Source founder and CEO Allen Thornton signed up for a piece of the big prize. His company helps connect nonprofits and businesses to grants.

"Grant Source is a technology platform that helps organizations find money for their mission," Thornton said. "We've streamlined the grant writing process and the grant finding process."

Through networking and the accelerator course, Thornton was able to land a massive new client with the folks that gave him a boost in the first place.

"MassChallenge is now one of our clients," Thornton said. "We're helping them find money for their mission and doing that all across the world in 6 different countries."