The results are in after the first round of voting in our New Mexico Inno Madness bracket and eight startups have made their way through to the next round.
The friendly, bracket-style contest got underway last week, with 16 New Mexico startups facing off after being selected based on reader nominations and our own input. As part of the competition, readers voted to advance companies based on one question: Who would you invest in?
Seeding in this year's bracket was determined by age, funding and previous coverage of each startup, with last year's finalists holding each of the number one seeds. While neither of those top seeds fell, the first round of voting in this year's Inno Madness did see a series of upsets in Region B of our 16-startup bracket.
In the biggest upset, seven-seed Mindset Integrated, the brain data startup, took down two-seed Both& Apparel, earning 29 more votes than the transmasculine apparel company. Also in Region B, six-seed air-filtering helmet company Gilz LLC defeated supercomputing startup Hoonify Technologies Inc. by a slim margin of three votes, and the health management startup WaveOn Health, a No. 5 seed, beat nanotechnology company Goodman Technologies by 47 votes.
Matchups in Region A went as expected based on seeding. Terra Vera and Circular Genomics both advanced by around 100 votes. The contest between four-seed MNT SmartSolutions, a nanoparticle teeth cleaning startup, and five-seed energy storage company Breeze Inc., however, was much closer — MNT SmartSolutions beat Breeze by only three votes.
More than 350 people cast votes in the first round — almost five times as many as the first round of last year's Inno Madness competition. If you're curious about the full results, you can find those here.
The goal of Inno Madness is to give a snapshot of some of the most promising tech companies in New Mexico. It is by no means a complete list of New Mexico's best startups, which is a testament to the size of the tech scene in the Land of Enchantment. It's also not just a list of the 16 most-funded startups in the region.
Instead, the bracket is meant to represent the full 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 — including some of our Startups to Watch.
Now, it's time to cast your vote in round two! Find the link to vote in the bracket below, updated after the first round's results. And meet the remaining competitors under the bracket, listed based on seeding.
Solstar Space Co. — Last year's champion develops communications technology for satellites and spacecraft
Build with Robots — Last year's runner-up offers automated robots that spray disinfectant to clean airports, schools and other areas
Circular Genomics — Using circular RNAs to diagnose and treat psychiatric and neurological diseases
Terra Vera — Agriculture technology for sustainable crop production
MNT SmartSolutions — Biotech company using magnetic nanoparticles to help keep teeth clean
WaveOn Health — Creating an app-based digital athlete health management system
Gilz LLC — Making a smart helmet with an integrated air-filtering mechanism
Mindset Integrated — Applying science-based solutions to simplify the collection and analysis of brain data
Vote for the startup you'd invest in at the link in the bracket above, and read the contest rules here.
