Sixteen local startups are vying for the coveted title of 2023 Inno Madness champion. And the winner is up to you to decide.
Inno Madness is a friendly bracket-style challenge in which readers vote to advance companies based on one question: Who would you invest in?
Whether you believe in one mission or product slightly over the other or would prefer to back a more established company versus an early-stage startup, how you answer that question is entirely up to you. The bracket is designed to shine a spotlight on 16 innovative, fast-growing local businesses.
The bracket is assembled based on editorial input from the Albany Inno team. Seeding was determined in an order based roughly on the amount of funding each startup has raised. Meet the participants below and read the contest rules online.
Last year's champion, UCM Digital Health, is back as the top seed to defend its title against some up-and-coming companies in the Capital Region. This year's contest newcomers include Rocket Science, which is building a headquarters in Glenville, and Helios Life Enterprises, which is starting to catch the eye of national pitch competitions.
The goal of Inno Madness is to give a snapshot of some of the most-promising tech companies in the Capital Region. It is by no means a complete list of the Albany region's best startups. It's also not just a list of the 16 most-funded startups in the region.
Instead, the bracket is meant to represent the breadth and diversity of the ecosystem. In the end, think of the bracket as just a fun look into tech local companies you need to know in 2023. Check out our list of Albany region startups to watch this year.
First-round voting begins March 2 and continues through March 7 at noon. Readers can cast one vote per round. We'll open up voting round by round, ultimately crowning an Inno Madness winner on March 30.
A short description of each company is below. Here's the bracket:
UCM Digital Health is a telemedicine triage platform meant to keep patients from visiting the ER when it's not necessary.
MyForest Foods, a spinoff of Ecovative, makes a bacon substitute from mycelium, the rootlike structures of mushrooms.
Aptihealth is a behavioral health telemedicine platform that connects patients to psychotherapists.
Inspect Point has created a software platform to help fire protection companies more easily manage building inspections.
KeyCapture Energy develops, constructs, owns and operates large-scale battery systems that store energy created by hydro, wind or other systems.
Velan Studios is a video game developer that has released three titles so far: Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit for Nintendo, Knockout City for EA Games and Hot Wheels: Rift Rally.
Ecovative uses mycelium to develop sustainable replacements for products including packing materials and leather.
Nuvalence focuses on professional services in the cloud computing industry.
Vyv makes an LED light whose very specific wavelength on non-UV light can kill microbes on surfaces.
Levrx has developed a digital platform that shows which medications are covered under a patient’s health plan and which pharmacy sells them for the lowest cost.
Livingston Energy sells custom EV charging stations for electric cars and other vehicles. Each of the stations are connected to the cloud, allowing the company to monitor use of the units and continually push software updates.
Wolfjaw Studios is a contract video game development startup that does a lot of the work to support games with a focus on player experience, such as player accounts, individual user stats and tracking leaderboards.
Rushdown Studios was founded by three PUBG software engineers that set out to form their own studio. It offers mostly contract work for backend systems of online and multiplayer games.
Helios Life Enterprises is an artificial intelligence company. The Saratoga-based company says it tech can analyze and derive meaning from tonal shifts in speech.
Rocket Science, founded by a local video game industry veteran, fulfills development contracts for other video game companies. The company makes pieces of online multiplayer games.
VoyceMe is a platform for digital comics that now has more than 1 million unique monthly users. Authors can share manga – Japanese-style comics – and webtoons, digital comics that originated in South Korea.
