We're back with Inno Madness updates.
Voting in round two has drawn to a close, including a last-minute tie-breaking vote in Region D. You helped us pick the remaining 16 companies. Now it’s time to whittle that list down to eight. But before we jump into voting, let’s recap round two and meet the companies moving forward.
Nearly 3,000 votes were cast in the second round of Inno Madness. Some matchups had clear winners, with Embark Veterinary finishing nearly 300 votes ahead of SplitSpot and Armored Things passing Klaviyo with a strong lead. Breakout Fun! continues to beat out higher-ranked companies, this week garnering more votes than Jobble.
Other matchups were tight. Wings came out on top of LinkSquares by six votes. DocFox edged out Sea Machine Robotics by 26 votes. And after ezCater and Allure Security Technologies Inc. tied with 1,131 votes apiece, a one-day, tie breaking vote saw ezCater moving to round three.
Check out the bracket below to see all the companies that made it to the next round and get voting!
What is Inno Madness?
Inno Madness is our friendly, bracket-style challenge where 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 64 innovative, fast-growing local businesses.
Scroll down for descriptions of all Inno Madness contenders and sign up for The Beat here, BostInno’s free daily innovation newsletter from BostInno reporter Hannah Green
The bracket, which BostInno’s editorial team assembled based on nominations submitted by readers in recent weeks, encompasses a broad range of private, venture capital-backed or bootstrapped firms. In some cases, startups in their earliest stages will compete against some established favorites.
Take a look at the participating companies in our bracket and read the contest rules here.
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 2022. Last year, MineralTree took home the trophy. Other past winners include Berkshire Grey (2020), Toast (2019) and Botkeeper (2018).
Take a look at our voting guide below. Then, scroll down to cast your vote.
When can I vote?
Boston’s Inno Madness includes several stages, as the competition gets narrowed down over the course of several weeks. Here’s the voting schedule to keep track of each move as voters decide who’s advancing to the next level. Voting will close at 9 a.m. on the final day of each round to give us time to tally the votes before the next round starts.
Round 1: March 3 to 8
Round 2: March 9 to 14
Round 3: March 15 to 18
Round 4: March 19 to 23
Round 5: March 24 to 28
Round 6: March 29 to April 1
2022 Inno Madness Champion announced: April 3
Now, it’s time to get to the voting. Once each round of voting closes, we’ll advance the winners.
Meet this year’s players, which are broken up into four regions. We'll update this list of companies with each round's participants.
Region A
Aqua Security: A cloud native security company.
Wabbi: A cybersecurity company trying to modernize how application security is deployed.
Empida: This company created a well-being platform for building team togetherness, company culture and employee well-being.
Breakout Fun!: A software company that makes educational games and activities for the classroom.
Region B
Starburst: Software analytics startup that was the the first tech company from Massachusetts to hit a $1 billion valuation in 2021.
Embark Veterinary: A company offering dog DNA tests that can provide information about a pet’s breed, ancestry, health and more.
Allego: Allego is using its mobile technology to ensure teams can quickly create and share interactive content to train, onboard, coach, etc.
Armored Things: This company provides SaaS solutions for crowd intelligence.
Region C
AtScale: A computer software company providing business intelligence and data science across all industries.
Realtime Robotics: This company has created new automation features for robots and autonomous vehicles, including risk-aware driving and automated robot vision that continuously calibrates itself.
Pixability Inc.: A marketing and advertising company that helps brands launch campaigns across YouTube and Connected TV.
Smile: This dating app matches users based on their sense of humor.
Region D
ezCater: Restaurants and caterers use ezCater’s platform to grow and manage their food services.
Paragonix Technologies Inc.: This company makes medical devices that safeguard organs during the journey between donor and recipient.
Wings: This startup is a robotics and AI startup bringing its products to local cannabis dispensaries.
DocFox: DocFox works with financial institutions on advancing document processing with document inspection, data capture and comparison of any document with a suite of automation tools.
