Voting in the final four of this year's New Mexico Inno Madness contest just wrapped up. Now, it's time for the Championship.
The friendly, bracket-style contest got underway a couple of weeks ago, with 16 New Mexico startups facing off after being selected based on reader nominations and our own input. As part of the competition, readers vote to advance companies based on one question: Who would you invest in?
After a pair of back-and-forth contests that were at times separated by only a couple of votes, Terra Vera and WaveOn Health advanced to this year's Inno Madness Championship.
Terra Vera defeated No. 2 seeded Circular Genomics in the Region A final by a tally of 45 votes. The No. 3 seeded ag-tech startup has made an impressive run through this year's bracket, upsetting last year's champion Solstar Space Co. in the second round of voting before notching another upset over Circular Genomics last round.
WaveOn Health, a No. 5 seed that's building a digital health management system, locked in its own upset over two-seed and last year's runner-up, Build with Robots, in the Region B final by 69 votes. It took down No. 7 seeded Mindset Integrated in round two after upsetting No. 4 seeded Goodman Technologies in the first round.
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. After last year's champion lost in round two, last year's runner-up fell in its final four match-up, leaving the pair of Inno Madness newcomers in this year's Championship.
Almost 1,500 people cast votes in the final four, continuing the exponential round-to-round vote count growth in this year's Inno Madness competition. If you're curious about the full results from the final four, you can find those here.
The goal of Inno Madness is to give a snapshot of some of the most promising 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 startup 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 our bracket as just a fun look into local companies you need to know — including some of our Startups to Watch.
Now, it's time to cast your vote in the Championship! Find the link to vote in the bracket below, updated after the final four's results. And meet the two finalists under the bracket, listed based on seeding.
Terra Vera — Agriculture technology for sustainable crop production
WaveOn Health — Creating an app-based digital athlete health management system
Vote for the startup you'd invest in at the link in the bracket above, and read the contest rules here.
