March is here and with it comes our second annual KY Inno Madness competition.
Once again, we’ve got 32 startups from across Kentucky and Southern Indiana vying for the hallowed crown bestowed upon the 2023 Inno Madness champion.
For those of you unfamiliar with how this works, 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 slightly 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. The bracket is designed to shine a spotlight on 32 innovative, fast-growing local businesses.
The bracket is assembled based on reader nominations, as well as editorial input from the KY Inno team. Seeding — although not that important — was determined by age and how much venture capital the companies have raised. Meet the participants below and read the content rules here.
There is only one repeat participant from our inaugural tournament: Last year’s champion, VividCharts. We thought it was only right to give the company the opportunity to defend its title against a new field of opponents.
Please note: The goal of Inno Madness is to simply give a glimpse of some of the most-promising tech companies in our region. It is by no means a complete list of our best startups, which is a testament to the growing size of the commonwealth's tech scene. It's also not a list of the 32 most-funded startups.
Instead, the bracket is meant to represent the full breadth and diversity of the ecosystem. In the end, think of the bracket as just a fun look into local companies you need to know in 2023.
In case you missed it, KY Inno highlighted 20 companies in our latest Startups to Watch program this year — some of which are included in the bracket.
First-round voting begins now and continues through 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, March 8. Readers can cast one vote per round. We'll open up voting round by round, ultimately crowning a winner on Monday, April 3. Be sure to subscribe to KY Inno's free weekly newsletter, The Beat, to stay up to date on the matchups.
Click on the bracket to vote now, or read more about the competitors below.
Meet the players
VividCharts (Lexington, Kentucky) — A data visualization platform that allows ServiceNow customers to generate and distribute real-time reports that make data-focused decisions easy and efficient.
Wicked Sheets (Louisville) — Wicked Sheets specializes in bedding and sleep products. In partnership with the University of Louisville, the Wicked Smart Pad will test application use in the Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias populations.
Gravity Diagnostics (Covington, Kentucky) — The company provides innovative diagnostic testing in the areas of toxicology, pharmacogenetics, infectious and upper respiratory diseases, blood, and COVID-19.
eBlu Solutions (Louisville) — A health-tech company that specializes in streamlining prior authorizations for infusion-based specialty medications, currently supporting infusion drug prior authorizations in rheumatology, neurology, gastroenterology and allergy/asthma.
XpressRun (Louisville) — XpressRun is a same-day delivery orchestration platform offering nationwide coverage at the lowest possible rates, giving businesses access to over 4 million couriers through one API [application program interface] integration.
OnPoint Warranty (Louisville) — An insurtech company offering warranty underwriting and administration, and extended and home warranties for manufacturers, retailers, service providers, HVAC installers, consumers and other users.
BioProducts (Louisville) — BioProducts provides unique profitability solutions for agricultural residue through its patented technologies. The company’s technologies deliver xylose (a zero calorie sugar), carbon neutral biocoal (a drop in replacement for coal) and high-surface area activated carbons for multiple applications.
Flamel.ai (Covington) — Flamel is an AI-generated content design studio. Its platform aims to make social media marketing easier for businesses of all sizes by allowing users to create a Facebook or Instagram post, and later, radio ads and TikTok videos.
Xena Intelligence (Louisville) — Xena is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered e-commerce growth platform that helps brands grow on platforms like Amazon and Walmart through automation and AI.
SalesRiver (Lexington) — SalesRiver is an enterprise sales enablement platform for distributed sales teams, whose clients are insurance industry companies. It is a recently announced spinoff of Leadrilla.
DesiCorp (Louisville) — Desicorp specializes in freeze drying blood. Once the process is complete, it can last up to three years in terms of maintaining its structure and six months in terms of its function.
KidVestors (Louisville) — KidVestors is a financial education curriculum software for K-12 students. We make finance and investing simple, easy and accessible by blending culturally relevant content and entertainment through our gamified platform to help close the racial wealth gap.
C2 Keep (Louisville) — C2 Keep is a SaaS [software-as-a-service] solution helping pharmacies improve compliance with the Controlled Substances Act, be more audit-prepared, and manage drug inventory up to 70% more efficiently.
findCRA (Louisville) — The company has software offerings that give banks the ability to find and research CRA-aligned nonprofits and build performance context, in addition to a fast-growing CRA consultancy.
Modica (Louisville) — Modica produces superfood-based cocktail and mocktail mixers in various flavors that are natural, low in sugar and full of antioxidants.
Elixir Kombucha (Louisville) — : Born out of a home brewing operation, Elixir makes a line of kombucha, selling it in stores across Kentucky and in some surrounding states.
EmsanaRx (Louisville) — EmsanaRx is a platform that aims to help doctors, pharmacists and patients get the information they need to make better clinical decisions — and to see if a certain drug is covered by a patient’s insurance provider.
TitleWise (Clarksville, Indiana) — TitleWise creates digital solutions for the real estate title industry. With digitized workflows and cloud document storage, the TitleWise app saves firms on average $200,000 per year by reducing the time to complete a title search by 60%.
Farmers Plus (Leitchfield, Kentucky) — The company has a digital marketplace designed for the agriculture tech industry, which includes the capability of conducting e-commerce transactions.
Plastiblok (Paducah, Kentucky) —The company produces Lok-N-Blok, a sustainable block made up of 50% polypropylene (known as green plastic). The plastic compound can be ground down and used again.
RaveOn Sports (Lexington) — RaveOn Sports is a sports technology company focused on creating the second-screen experiences for displaced fans, content creators and others by connecting them to each other during the live games and developing AI and machine-learning enterprise solutions for teams and leagues to make fan-centric decisions.
Affinna (Louisville) — Affinna is a streamlined ticket-buying platform on which users can buy or sell tickets, in which the average transaction should take about 20 seconds.
Nonbinary Solutions (Lexington) — NonBinary Solutions makes clinical decision support software for applied behavior analysis-based treatment providers who have patients with autism.
Feedcoyote (Paducah, Kentucky) — Feedcoyote serves as a collaboration platform for freelancers. It was created to address both the increasing numbers of freelancers in the digital space, and the resulting increased need for connections to other freelancers.
uJoin (Paducah, Kentucky) — uJoin is a web-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that helps its users gain “policy wins” by seamlessly influencing advocates and decision makers and connecting with the community built around those causes.
SWIS (Louisville) — Standing for Storm Water Intelligence System, SWIS is a patented algorithm, paired with a device, which informs consumers when they are reducing or adding contaminated blackwater at critical times, thus helping reduce EPA fines for municipalities and reducing blackwater runoff overall.
Xiled Gaming (Pikeville, Kentucky) — Xiled Gaming is a structured multi-platform global gaming community.
Sikanai (Park Hills, Kentucky) — Sikanai is an edtech startup focusing on student-first solutions that benefit both the instructor and the student.
BumptUp (Bowling Green, Kentucky) — BumptUp is a pregnancy health evidence-based app that helps women improve physical activity and health outcomes both through the pregnancy and postpartum stages.
Fair Chance Works (London, Kentucky) — The company specializes in helping fair-chance and second-chance clients re-enter society by supporting with professional growth throughout the recovery process.
Safari Solutions (Liberty, Kentucky) — The company developed a module that enables car wash operators to add barcode scanning capabilities to any existing kiosk.
Cartainers (Louisville) — Cartainers aims to help luxury car owners store, display and transport their rides through customizable containers with motorized doors, 24/7 monitoring, GPS tracking and electromagnetic locks, among other features.
