After 60 fierce matchups, we are down to the Semi Finals of the 2017 Tech Madness challenge. And if you thought your NCAA bracket was busted, we have a #12, a #10, a #7 and a #8 seed still dancing. Who will cut down the net?
We've posted the updated regions below, as well as how to vote for who you think should make it to the Semi Finals. Each matchup in Tech Madness is determined by community voting, with readers just needing to answer one question to decide who moves on - Who do you think will have the greater impact in five years?
And at the beginning of the challenge, we said that the 2017 Tech Madness Bracket was designed to serve as a snapshot of current state of the Boston ecosystem, with representatives from every stage and every category. So, with that in mind, it's no surprise that the Semi Finals mirrors the diversity of the city's innovation economy, offering up four promising startups operating in unique industries, each at a different spot in their entrepreneurial journey.
Let's recap this week's action. The biggest upset that we saw was #12 seed Toast come out victorious over #6 seed Datadog. The closest fight of the week was between #8 seed ezCater and #11 seed Bullhorn, and in the end, ezCater is headed to the Semi Finals by just 13 votes.
The Semi Finals will end on Monday, 4/10 at 12 PM EST; let's take a look at the four that are still in and the updated bracket...
- (12): Toast - A growing restaurant point-of-sales software company that raised a round of $30 million in Series B funding in 2016 and added 200 more employees in the past year.
- (8): ezCater - An online business catering marketplace that has now raised $70 million total funding in the last year and a half, and who has also doubled their team in one year.
- (10): Drizly - An alcohol delivery service now delivering to 40 markets in the United States and Canada. Raised a total of $33 million since their start in 2012, and plans to add 15-20 new employees within the year.
- (7): Cybereason - Cybereason is a leading cybersecurity company, offering endpoint detection and response, next-generation antivirus, managed monitoring services, and IR services. In 2016, the company increased revenue by 300 percent and tripled its workforce.
