ValChoice wins $120k prize in Microsoft BizSpark competition

Fifth startup honor for Bedford-based company

ValChoice, a Bedford-based company described by Forbes magazine as “CarFax for insurance,” has won yet another startup business competition, and this time it’s for $120,000 through the Microsoft BizSpark Plus Award.

The award, a global program to help startups by giving them free access to Microsoft Azure cloud services, software and support, including access to a wide range of training courses, startup support and networking with enterprise customers.

Joshua Drew, senior technical evangelist at Microsoft, said ValChoice was “a clear choice” for the BizSpark Plus award “because of the unique technology platform the company has developed to bring industry-first transparency to the insurance industry.

ValChoice is an online platform that enables consumers to find out which home and auto insurance companies offer the best value as measured by price, protection and service quality.

The Microsoft award comes on the heels of ValChoice winning four other business competitions over the last several months, including the University of New Hampshire Social Venture Innovation Challenge, Live Free and Start, Alpha Loft’s Accelerate NH 2016 and the Manchester Young Professionals Network’s Startup Challenge. Over the period, the company has reaped nearly $250,000 in prizes.