After four rounds of voting, four companies are left standing heading into the semifinals. Before we see the semi-final matchups, let’s see how the last round shook out.
In Region A, Minute Kitchen, a food vending startup, overcame a head start by Paperless Parts to win its bracket. Ezly Rent ended up securing 55% of the votes in its Region B match up against Wabbi. As its name implies, Ezly Rent streamlines the process for renting and lending items, from DJ sets to kayaks. Well-known Boston “unicorn” Wasabi won its competition against Sea Machines Robotics. And finally, in Region D, HYCU managed a slim victory over ezCater. HYCU is a 2022 BostInno Fire Awards honoree and last year raised a $53 million Series B round and moved into a new headquarters in the Seaport.
Check out the bracket below to see the semi-final matchups 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.
The bracket was assembled based on nominations from readers, members of the innovation community and the Inno editorial team. It 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 2023. Last year, Realtime Robotics took home the trophy. Other past winners include MineralTree (2021), Berkshire Grey (2020) and Toast (2019).
Take a look at our voting guide below.
When can I vote?
Boston’s Inno Madness includes several stages, as the competition gets narrowed down over the course of several weeks. We’ll keep you posted on who’s advancing, and who’s not, right here on BostInno.com and in the Beat newsletter. Subscribe here if you're not already on the list.
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 6 to 9
- Round 2: March 10 to 15
- Round 3: March 16 to 21
- Round 4: March 22 to 27
- Round 5: March 28 to 31
- Round 6: April 3 to April 6
- 2023 Inno Madness Champion announced: April 12
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
Minute Kitchen: A food-vending startup led by a Babson College student.
Region B
Ezly Rent: This Black-led startup streamlines the process for renting and lending items, from DJ sets to kayaks.
Sign up for The Beat, BostInno’s free daily innovation newsletter from BostInno reporter Hannah Green. See past examples here.
Region C
Wasabi: This cloud storage company became a unicorn in 2022.
Region D
HYCU: A multi-cloud data protection SaaS company.
