PHOENIX, AZ (August 18, 2025) – On July 29, the Arizona Commerce Authority announced it was accepting applications for the Fall 2025 Cohort of the Arizona Innovation Challenge, one of the nation’s largest business plan competitions. Through the competition,  startups compete head-to-head for seed funding and will work with venture capitalists and expert mentors to support the trajectory of their business.

Over a 12-week period, the Fall 2025 AIC awardees will work with a successful startup mentor, known as an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR), to refine the startup’s business plan, plan financial strategies, and track progress towards growth goals. 

Within a few weeks, the ACA received 67 applications for the Fall 2025 cohort, which focuses on AI/SaaS startups, with judges accepting 24 companies to move on to the semifinalists round.

Here’s a look at the Arizona Innovation Challenge (AIC) program by the numbers:

• 2011 - the year the AIC first launched
• 3,000 - the total number of applications received over all rounds
• 150 - the total number of companies selected as awardees
• $6.1+ billion - the total portfolio value of awardee companies
• 43 - the number of successful exits by awardee companies
• 620 - the number of investors who have made investments in awardee companies
• 190:1 - the ratio of private vs ACA investment in awardee companies, underscoring the program’s catalytic role attracting external private capital 

TESTIMONIALS

“The Arizona Innovation Challenge was extremely valuable for Trainual. I very much appreciated the program, the mentorship, and the investment in the early stages of my business,” said Chris Ronzio, CEO and Founder of Trainual, and a Fall 2018 AIC awardee. “It was an invaluable process that prepared me to raise VC funding, which I had never done before. Expanding the program is exciting and will be beneficial for even more entrepreneurs.”

“Arizona has a great ecosystem of people who care about innovation and being part of the AIC and being part of the Venture Scale program has really allowed me to connect with so many more people that I would not have gotten in connection with,” said Claire Larson, CEO and Co-Founder, RokPaper Packaging and a 2024 AIC awardee.

“One of the key things for us was getting connected through the ACA to Dan Tyre, who is now our EIR,” said Aashay Arora, Co-Founder of EnKoat, and a 2024 AIC awardee. “We work with him on a weekly basis, refining our go-to market strategy, refining our financial plan, and since we plan to raise money from investors, Dan is able to advise us on that.”

Media Contact

Alyssa Tufts, Arizona Commerce Authority, [email protected]

About the Arizona Commerce Authority
The Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) is the state's leading economic development organization with a streamlined mission to grow and strengthen Arizona's economy. The ACA uses a three-pronged approach to advance the overall economy: attract, expand, create - attract out-of-state companies to establish operations in Arizona; work with existing companies to expand their business in Arizona and beyond; and help entrepreneurs create new Arizona businesses in targeted industries. For more information, please visit azcommerce.com and follow the ACA on X @azcommerce.