Here’s who won big at the 2022 Chicago Innovation Awards

This year’s Chicago Innovation Awards highlight how the city’s tech and startup scene is not as much the boys club that it used to be.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot alluded to as much in her opening address, highlighting that of the 21 winners at Wednesday night’s awards, 11 were women-led businesses and nine were founded by people of color.

Chicago boasts the highest share of female founders of any of the top 20 tech hubs in the world with 34% of startups being founded by women, more than two times the global average, according to a recent report conducted by Chicago Chamber of Commerce. The report also shows that Chicago's tech ecosystem sees greater Black and Latino participation than the national average, with 32% diverse participation compared to the national average of 19%.

This year, the Chicago Innovation Awards received nominations from 365 organizations in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. In total the nominees generated more than $6 billion in revenue, secured more than $1 billion in capital raised and created nearly 12,000 new jobs.

Among the honorees this year was Up-and-Comer Award winner Pluie with its flagship product, a self-sanitizing diaper-changing table for public restrooms, powered by a patented UV-C light system.

The idea for Pluie first came to momtrepreneur Addie Gundry when she had a diaper emergency while out at lunch one day in Chicago.

Gundry described it as “the dreaded parent experience,” but it ended up being something of an “aha moment” for her career.

“There was no changing table in the men’s room and right away that sparked my interest,” she told Chicago Inno. “And so I went into the women’s room and it was a difficult experience. It was uncomfortable, it was inconvenient, I had to put my purse on the floor, which felt dirty.”

In her mind, families come in all shapes and sizes, so changing tables should be available for everyone.

That was in 2018. Gundry filed a utility patent in 2019 and designed a more comfortable setup, with convenience and cleanliness in mind. She later left her job to start the business full-time and hasn’t looked back since.

Pluie has raised $3.7 million to date and is now up to four full-time team members. Its first installation was at the Angel Harvey Family Health Center in 2021, and Pluie tables have since been installed at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport over the summer — the company’s first airport expansion with three more on the way — and at Guaranteed Rate Field, home of the Chicago White Sox.

Other winners on Wednesday night included:

Many past Innovation Award winners have become attractive acquisition targets for large corporations or private equity, with 67 exits totaling more than $118 billion since 2002. Some 98% of previous Chicago Innovation Award winners since remain in business today.