With over 70% of the vote, property tech app BlockX is the winner of this year’s Houston Inno Madness. Voting closed March 27 for the final round of Houston Inno’s startup competition, where BlockX defeated food delivery service UrbanGoodz Delivery to take this year’s crown.
In a nomination submitted in January, BlockX co-founder Stephen Garza wrote that the company was trying to make real estate investment more accessible by unlocking data. The data BlockX provides includes flood zones, average income in a designated area, and tax values, according to the company’s website.
BlockX overcame renewable energy startup CES Renewables in the third round — with over 87% of the vote — following wins over blockchain startup Topl in the first round and education artificial intelligence startup Upbrainery in the second round.
Inno Madness is designed to generate awareness and excitement for the city’s startup ecosystem and those who are driving it forward. This year, we had 16 companies submitted from Houston Inno readers and from the Inno editorial team. This year’s contestants represented both a variety of industries as well as the ways Houston founders have gotten their starts.
Here are the 16 companies that competed in this year’s Houston Inno Madness, plus their final placings:
- BlockX: Incubating a property tech app in Houston that provides data and valuation on target real estate. Winner.
- UrbanGoodz Delivery: A company launching a food delivery app focusing on underrepresented food businesses and mom-and-pop shops that aren’t always found on competitors. Runner-up
- ProjectUS: A company producing a platform for construction project managers to organize data and workflow. Eliminated in Round 3.
- CES Renewables: A startup focusing on operations and maintenance for renewable energy installations ranging from wind turbines to energy storage. Eliminated in Round 3.
- RedSwan: Focusing on blockchain technology to tokenize real estate for property owners to raise capital and for investor liquidity and transparency. Eliminated in Round 2
- BlackPearl Technology Inc.: This Woodlands-based engineering company provides design services with specialization in hardware, firmware and integrated software. Eliminated in Round 2
- Upbrainery: The company is working on a platform for education using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Eliminated in Round 2.
- Pagewood: A company developing a commercial real estate platform using artificial intelligence and data science to create investment strategies. Eliminated in Round 2.
- PicSolve.ai: An artificial intelligence startup that helps answer your homework questions – just by scanning in a picture. Eliminated in Round 1
- MacroFab: An electronics manufacturing company that built a platform for companies to build, test, and package products. Eliminated in Round 1.
- Starling Medical: A digital health company that is developing a way to detect bladder health issues early. Eliminated in Round 1.
- Cellvie: A biotech company developing medicines from mitochondria in cells to help those facing metabolism issues. Eliminated in Round 1.
- Clutch: A platform for social media and short-form video creators to find brands willing to partner with them. Eliminated in Round 1.
- Amperon: A company developing technology to provide real-time energy data and forecasts. Eliminated in Round 1.
- Topl: A blockchain startup that helps businesses and organizations track sustainability initiatives. Eliminated in Round 1.
- GoCo.io: A company creating an all-in-one human resources platform targeting small and medium-sized businesses. Eliminated in Round 1.
