Cincy Inno Madness is now underway.
ACBJ
The Cincy Inno Madness competition is here, and we've got 32 local startups and tech companies vying for the ultimate bragging rights: the coveted title of 2024 Inno Madness champion.
ICYMI: 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 over the other or would prefer to back a more established company versus an early-stager, how you answer that question is entirely up to you.
The bracket is assembled based on reader nominations, as well as editorial input from the Cincy Inno team. Seeding was determined by total funding and recent momentum. Meet the participants below and read the contest rules here.
The goal of Inno Madness is to give a snapshot of some of the most promising tech companies in the region. It is by no means a complete list of Greater Cincinnati's top startups. It's also not just a list of the 32 best-funded companies in the region.
Instead, the bracket is meant to represent the full breadth and diversity of the ecosystem. In the end, think of it as another fun look into local tech companies you need to know in 2024.
First-round voting begins now and continues through 11:59 p.m. Thursday, March 21.
Readers can cast one vote per round. We'll open up voting round by round, ultimately crowning an Inno Madness winner April 9.
Let's get into Round 1...
Meet the players:
- 80 Acres Farms is an indoor vertical farming startup known for its tomatoes and leafy greens.
- Abre is a K-12 education data management platform that connects students, families, staff and community partners. The company last year closed an oversubscribed funding round.
- Akru’s blockchain-based platform allows for fractionalized real estate investing, democratizing commercial real estate investments.
- Astronomer is developing modern data orchestration tools powered by Apache Airflow, an open-source platform.
- Bailout Systems is a hands-free fall-safety device for firefighters, arborists, military personnel and recreational climbers. Founder Michael Ragsdale was inspired by the 2005 Black Sunday incident in New York City, during which six firefighters were forced to jump from the fourth floor of a burning building. Only four survived, all of whom sustained life-altering injuries. Bailout Systems has raised $374,000 to date from UC’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Commercialization, Third Frontier and Main Street Ventures, among others.
- Band Connect is developing a digital health platform plus fitness equipment outfitted with sensors to promote in-home physical therapy. The company recently landed its first U.S. patent has officially been approved and is in the process of raising a $1.5 million seed round.
- Bexion Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biopharma company founded as a spinout from Cincinnati Children's Hospital, is developing new therapies for cancer and neuropathy.
- BioWish Technologies provides biotech solutions for the agriculture, aquaculture and environmental management industries, allowing customers to increase crop production or naturally treat waste and surface water.
- Cloverleaf is an automated coaching platform for workers and teams.
- Coterie, an insurtech, offers fast and simple insurance options to small businesses, contractors and gig workers using a digital data-powered underwriting platform.
- EdgeEnergy designs and manufactures electric vehicle conversion hardware that allows for the installation of fast chargers on single-phase power infrastructure. The tech allowing for installations in “edge-of-grid” locations, or remote areas like state parks, small towns and rural resorts. EdgeEnergy recently raised a $6 million round.
- Enable Injections, a medical device maker, is developing a palm-sized wearable disk called EnFuse that could prove an alternative to traditional IV administration. The company ranks as the region’s best-funded startup with more than $311 million raised.
- Frayt is a tech startup that connects businesses with on-demand last-mile delivery services — small-freight and independent van owners with excess cargo space. Using the company’s app, customers can enter their information and receive an instant quote.
- Genetesis is developing the CardioFlux to rapidly scan for various heart conditions without the use of radiation, contrast or exercise. The company has received the Federal Drug Administration's “breakthrough” designation, considered a next step in full market authorization.
- High Enroll is developing an app that makes it easier for physicians and others in the health care space to find and recruit patients for clinical trials. It has contracts with some of the nation's largest research institutions, including Cleveland Clinic, Henry Ford and Vanderbilt University.
- Kurome Therapeutics is developing novel therapies to help combat cancers like AML, or acute myeloid leukemia, a blood cancer that primarily affects adults 50 or older with a high mortality rate.
- Last Mile Food Rescue is a food rescue organization powered by tech. Its volunteers have picked up and delivered more than 8 million pounds of food since the group’s first rescue in November 2020.
- Losant is a provider of Internet-of-Things infrastructure software. The company is backed by CincyTech, among other venture firms.
- Lisnr’s ultrasonic proximity platform enables for secure and seamless data transmission. Its tech is currently deployed in eight countries, and the company counts Visa, Intel and others as investors.
- Narratize, a 2024 Startup to Watch, has developed a generative AI platform designed specifically for scientific, medical and technical writing. The startup closed an oversubscribed $2 million seed in December.
- Nichefire, based in Covington, is building an artificial intelligence-powered platform to help companies understand and predict the impact of emerging cultural trends. The startup closed a pre-seed round last year.
- Noxsano is going to market with a wound care solution targeting the veterinary industry. The company, founded by a team of scientists and health care professionals from Procter & Gamble, McKesson and more, is backed by Cleveland’s JumpStart Ventures and individual angel investors.
- Pantomath’s cloud-based observability and traceability platform works to help company’s fix broken data pipelines. The company in the fall more than tripled its physical footprint in Mason following a $14 million Series A fundraise.
- Pay Theory helps make payments more inclusive for families, especially those “un- or under-banked.”
- Pieces allows developers to save, search and reuse file fragments: code snippets, screenshots, architecture diagrams, text notes, code files and more. It landed initial funding from Columbus juggernaut Drive Capital and is eying a Series A round in 2024.
- Sense Neuro Diagnostics is developing noninvasive brain scanners to improve outcomes for stroke and brain injury patients. Sense is the 2021 Inno Madness champion.
- Safewave’s smart wristband connects via Bluetooth to fire alarms, Ring cameras, security devices, even the Owlet baby sleep monitor – turning any notification or alert into a vibration people can feel on their wrist. The device is tailored to customers who are deaf and hard of hearing, but there’s also a market for those with significant special needs, dementia and Alzheimer's, founder Trevon Bruch said.
- Soundtrace is developing software with AI and IoT (Internet of Things) technology to protect employees from noise-induced hearing loss. The 2-year-old startup last year raised $2.5 million from New York-based Gutter Capital; SpringTide, a Cambridge, Mass., venture capital firm; and Cintrifuse Capital.
- Spot Health is building infrastructure to support the future of at-home diagnostics. The company, based at Alloy Growth Lab, is a 2022 Y Combinator graduate.
- Subterra AI uses advanced technology to map, inspect and manage underground infrastructure like sewer systems with deployments in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and more.
- Tesouro, a fintech, is building a comprehensive embedded payments platform. The company backed by Columbus venture juggernaut Drive Capital, and in November, signed a new lease for office space at the Rookwood Tower in Norwood
- Voxel Technologies, an additive manufacturing/industrial 3D printing company, landed $1.7 million in seed funding from CincyTech in 2023. The company has since moved into an advanced manufacturing lab in Blue Ash.
