Four major Milwaukee companies have selected startup-conceived solutions to their corporate challenges in the culmination of the latest Reverse Pitch MKE competition.
After the companies presented their corporate challenges to more than 200 entrepreneurs nationwide in October, 21 startups applied to pitch solutions, program organizer The MKE Tech Hub Coalition announced March 2.
Once the group of finalists presented their solutions to the participating companies in February, each corporation chose one winner. The winning startups will each receive $10,000 in cash and in-kind business services.
Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin selected a solution pitched by Denver-based digital health startup InOn Health to help Froedtert improve health literacy by engaging with diverse patient populations and presenting information in ways that have been shown to drive improved health outcomes.
Northwestern Mutual chose a solution from MoSAYcity, a product of business consulting firm EvidaSolve LLC, to solve its challenge of expanding its culture of strong relationships among its disbursed workforce.
Rockwell Automation Inc. and Sargento Foods selected a solution pitched by Indiana-based 3D printing software company Araqev LLC to solve their challenge of leveraging raw material data for prescriptive manufacturing.
Rockwell Automation also chose a solution pitched by Milwaukee's Pythonic Corp. as the winner for its challenge of more quickly and accurately identifying industrial electronic devices installed in field applications.
"We are eager to support the winners in the next phase of their innovation journey,” Rockwell Automation senior vice president and chief technology officer Cyril Perducat said in a statement.
West Bend Mutual Insurance Co. also chose Pythonic as the winner of its challenge, in which it sought a way for property and casualty insurance customers to easily verify what's covered under their policies.
"We are excited to continue to work with them to further validate the scope and reach of this product," West Bend Mutual Insurance senior vice president and chief information officer Murali Natarajan said in a statement.
Designed to boost collaboration between corporations and startups, the Reverse Pitch MKE program was started in 2017 by Northwestern Mutual.
Previous Reverse Pitch winners have gone on to form local companies including Socialeads Inc., which later raised at least $1.75 million from investors including Northwestern Mutual.
Pythonic previously won the Reverse Pitch MKE competition in 2019 when Northwestern Mutual chose its solution as the winner of a challenge relating to automating medical records reviews.
The 2021 Reverse Pitch MKE winners will present their solutions in a virtual public event on March 18 at noon.
