Dayton startup accepted to Cincinnati accelerator program

A Dayton-based company has been accepted to a Cincinnati tech accelerator program.

Road-Aid, a company that works to analyze and disseminate pothole data, has been accepted to UpTech, an accelerator dedicated to technology and data-centric startups.

Road-Aid was founded in September 2015 and its bottomline purpose is simple: to transform how road maintenance is done, one pothole at a time. Founder and CEO James Bridgers, a resident of Dayton, said the startup aims to use sensor technology to identify roads with pot holes.

Road-Aid uses geospatial and sensor, automatic target recognition on vehicles to identify where potholes are at — and then collect, analyze and inventory data about road issues. Bridgers said the goal is to better help consumers to understand where potholes are at, he said. And, governments can more readily “deploy a fully proactive pothole identification program” if they have the data to use.

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This is the fifth cohort for UpTech, and includes nine companies total. The cohort starts this week and runs through the beginning of March. Located in Northern Kentucky just across the Ohio River, the accelerator program connects businesses to the Cincinnati startup community.

The accelerator program helps startups get “market and investor-ready with access to a myriad of mentors, learning opportunities and a dedicated team of professionals with backgrounds in accounting, banking, legal and sales and marketing,” according to UpTech.

Bridgers said he has mostly bootstrapped the funding to get his startup running, and will begin to seek funding through other sources.

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“We are thrilled for Road-Aid to be accepted to Uptech,” said Tiffany Ferrell, who helped organize Dayton Startup Week. “They’re such a great example of the innovative thinking that is at the heart of the Dayton startup community, and Uptech will provide them with the mechanisms they need to launch at a national level.”

Follow reporter Kara Driscoll for more news about entrepreneurship.

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