Our Houston Inno Madness competition is continuing, with eight startups advancing to the second round to claim the crown of Houston Inno readers' favorite startup.
Inno Madness is our friendly, bracket-style challenge where readers vote to advance companies based on one question: Which 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-stage startup, how you answer that question is entirely up to you.
Vote in Round 2 at the end of this story.
Round 1 saw some matchups go all the way to the wire, with three matchups being separated by a margin of less than five votes by the end of the poll. Voters were definitely excited by Biosfera, Farlite Solutions LLC and Astronaut — the three companies that saw the highest raw vote totals. Can they keep that momentum up for Round 2? Only you can decide that.
Second-round voting begins March 28 and continues through April 3 at 11:59 p.m. Readers can cast one vote in each matchup per round. We'll open up voting round by round, ultimately crowning an Inno Madness winner on April 18. Subscribe to The Beat newsletter to follow along.
Let's get into Round 2 …
Meet the Round 2 contestants:
- Aeromine: Aeromine uses a “bladeless wind turbine” to help commercial properties meet increasing demands for renewable energy.
- Astronaut: Astronaut is a software company developing an artificial intelligence assistant for online community management.
- Biosfera: Biosfera converts carbon dioxide into isoprene, a chemical used to manufacture rubber and solvents, both reducing emissions and creating value from waste.
- Ema: Ema is a conversational AI platform that aims to help women with health concerns by providing targeted recommendations based on input.
- Farlite Solutions LLC: Farlite Solutions neutralizes aerosol pathogens, such as measles, influenza and Covid-19, in indoor spaces with a customized UV light solution to reduce the probability of becoming infected while visiting a protected space.
- GigaDAC: GigaDAC is pioneering a method to build carbon dioxide direct air capture systems at a gigaton scale.
- Molecule: Targeting commodities trading, Molecule’s software platform automates risk analysis and other complex calculations for hedge funds, trading companies and financial services funds.
- Upgrade Boutique: Upgrade Boutique creates customized wigs and has a tech marketplace to sell them. Its clients include Simone Biles and Taraji P. Henderson.
Read contest rules here, and vote in the survey below.
