Voltaic Marine, a Traverse City-based electric boat company, is one of four startups that will compete for a $100,000 investment at Michigan’s PitchMI competition on Thursday. The contest, which is brand new this year, is hosted by Michigan’s Growth Office and has been billed as a “Shark Tank-style pitch competition.”

In August, Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced a call for applications for PitchMI, specifically seeking transportation or mobility companies. According to the announcement, the goal of the competition is to help the Growth Office find “one innovative solution that transforms the way Michiganders get from point A to point B safely, affordably and efficiently.” The winner will receive a $100,000 investment from the Growth Office, representing a “commitment by the state to spur entrepreneurial problem solving, connect innovators with capital, and create a ripple effect to accelerate more innovation.”

According to a recent press release from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), the Growth Office ultimately received 49 applications for the PitchMI competition. Applicants were then reviewed and scored “on innovation, impact, technology maturity and feasibility, market potential, team competence and advancement of the MI Healthy Climate Plan and MI Future Mobility Plan among others.” The Growth Office used those criteria to winnow down the field to a final four, which were announced earlier this month at the closing ceremony of the annual Michigan Tech Week.

Voltaic Marine, described in the MEDC press release as “an electric boat manufacturer with advanced propulsion and end to end solutions in Traverse City, Michigan,” was named as a finalist. The company is part of a growing push in northern Michigan to establish the region as an epicenter for electric boats.

Other contenders for the PitchMI investment include Civilized Cycles, which “designs and manufactures ultra-light electric vehicles in Detroit”; Boaz Bikes, another Detroit-based startup that makes “micromobility electric scooter with improved design and safety features for use in urban areas”; and GEKOT Robotics, which specializes in “controls, software and sensors for light vehicles (bikes, mopeds, etc.) to improve safety for the rider.” GEKOT operates out of in Bloomfield Hills, which means Voltaic Marine is the only finalist not based in the Detroit area.

PitchMI will take place at 2:30pm on Thursday, October 24, as part of the Office of Future Mobility and Electrification’s inaugural MI Future Mobility Conference. Finalists will compete in a pitch competition comparable to the popular ABC television series Shark Tank, where entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to a panel of venture capitalists in hopes of securing investment deals. The event will take place at Newlab in Detroit, part of Michigan Central, the 30-acre “technology and cultural hub” established last year in the city’s old train station.