The competition was heated in the semifinals of this year’s Inno Madness bracket.
Over the course of several days of voting, the four companies remaining in the competition each racked up more and more votes. The lead in each of the two matchups shifted constantly. All told, more than 9,000 votes were cast in the penultimate round.
We saw early-stage startups compete against big names in Boston’s tech scene and, in some cases, come out on top. In our first matchup, Minute Kitchen went up against Wasabi.
Minute Kitchen is a relatively new startup launched by graduate students at Babson College. The company is creating and deploying vending-machines to provide hot meals at a more accessible location and price. In an interview with Babson, the founders said they aimed to launch a prototype of their vending machines on campus at the start of this year.
Meanwhile, Wasabi is a well-known Boston company. You may have seen their name if you watched coverage of the Red Sox’s opening day. Wasabi is the Red Sox’s official cloud storage partner and holds the official naming rights to sports television provider NESN's new studio at Fenway Park.
Voters must have been looking for an underdog victory, because they lifted Minute Kitchen to a win with 51% of the votes.
The underdog in our second matchup wasn’t so lucky. Ezly Rent may have been ranked 16th in its region, but the startup put up quite a fight in this year’s competition. Ezly Rent made it through to the semifinals, beating out companies like Klaviyo and Wabbi along the way. But, the company fell in the last round to HYCU, which also won with 51% of the votes.
HYCU will head to the finals as the higher-ranked company. The Boston-based company was slated third in Region D. HYCU provides data protection as a service. It had a standout year in 2022, raising a $53 million Series B round, moving to a new office in the Seaport and being named a 2022 BostInno Fire Awards honoree. Let’s see if HYCU can keep that winning spirit alive in this year’s Inno Madness competition.
Cast your votes in the final round of Inno Madness and help us pick this year’s champion.
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
