The top seeds have moved on — but so too have some lower seeds.
Such were the results of the opening round of voting in this year's Inno Madness competition, our bracket-style challenge in which readers vote to advance companies based on one question: Who would you invest in?
We launched this year's Inno Madness competition at the start of the month. The goal of Inno Madness is to offer a glimpse at some of the companies working in the innovation space in Northeast Ohio.
Learn more about the program and all 16 companies in this year's field here.
Voting is now open in Round 2. You can cast your votes through Sunday, March 19.
Find out more about the eight companies competing in Round 2 below, and read the contest rules here.
Let the voting begin.
Matchup 1
#1 Society Brands: Canton-based Amazon aggregator Society Brands began its 2022 by raising $204 million in debt and equity in its first institutional capital raise. Led by co-founder and CEO Michael Sirpilla, the company proceeded to add to its staff, acquire several online brands and develop technologies intended to generate growth and efficiencies for those brands.
#9 Splash Financial Inc.: Splash Financial Inc. is a digital lending platform that targets the student-loan refinancing marketplace. The Cleveland company, led by founder and CEO Steven Muszynski, raised $10 million in funding in the second quarter of last year.
Matchup 2
#12 Neuros Medical Inc.: Neuros Medical Inc. is a developer of neurostimulation devices intended to treat chronic pain. The Willoughby Hills company, which reportedly completed an $8 million fundraise in the fourth quarter last year, is led by Tom Wilder as president and CEO.
#13 Champ Titles: Champ Titles uses technology to speed up the automobile title transfer process. The Cleveland company, led by Shane Bigelow as CEO, raised $12.9 million in a Series B round of financing last fall. That followed an $8.5 million Series A investment in August 2021.
Matchup 3
#2 Cleveland Kitchen: A finalist in last year's Inno Madness competition, Cleveland Kitchen makes fresh-fermented foods such as kimchi and pickles. The company last summer closed a $19 million funding round intended in part to help Cleveland Kitchen complete its acquisition of Sonoma Brinery, a California-based pickle and sauerkraut maker. Co-founder Drew Anderson is Cleveland Kitchen's CEO.
#10 Fello: Pepper Pike-based Fello uses information from home sellers and algorithms to calculate fair-market prices for houses with an iBuyer platform. The company, formerly known as FlashHouse, raised $25 million in debt and equity in June to scale its operations nationwide. Co-founders Ryan Young, Tom Schrader and Stephen London lead the venture.
Matchup 4
#6 SPR Therapeutics Inc.: The winner of last year's Inno Madness competition, SPR Therapeutics Inc. has developed the Sprint Peripheral Nerve Stimulation system to relieve chronic pain without the use of opioids or surgery. Maria Bennett is founder, president and CEO of the Highland Hills company. She said in an interview last year that the growing company anticipates "the true trajectory of revenue growth to occur in 2023."
#14 Land Energy: Cleveland electric-vehicle startup Land Energy secured its first investment round in 2022. The company, led by founder and CEO Scott Colosimo, subsequently worked to finalize fixtures that would enable a contract manufacturer's robots to weld the frame of each of its bikes, speeding up the manufacturing process with designs on the company hitting a goal of shipping 1,000 bikes in 12 months.
