That's it, Pacific Business News' inaugural Inno Madness competition over and based on your votes in the finals, the winner is ...
TurnoverBnB, with 1,369 votes (56.2%) over Parklinq with 1,069 (43.8%).
"It’s great to be recognized by the Pacific Business News readers," said Founder and CEO Assaf Karmon. "We have a world wide customer base but being supported by our local community feels amazing. TurnoverBnB is a local success story, starting from the UH MBA program, through Blue Startups and with support of the Hawaii Angels investor group. Almost all of our Hawaii employees are Shidler graduates and we want to create a role model of success for local entrepreneurs."
TurnoverBnB is a cleaning service app that helps customers schedule, pay, and find Airbnb vacation rental cleaners and Airbnb cleaning services. Parklinq is a public parking app that seeks to reduce carbon emissions while finding spaces for parkers, and generating income for those with extra parking spots
A huge mahalo to all of the stellar Hawaii companies who made Inno Madness possible by participating in the competition, and to everyone who voted.
Inno Madness has been PBN's bracket-style challenge where readers vote for companies that they thought were doing the most to advance innovation in Hawaii. Reasons for voting could've be tied to one's connection with any given startup's mission, cause, or tenure — among numerous other factors to be considered.
The bracket is designed to shine a spotlight on innovative, fast-growing local businesses in the Islands.
Watch for next week's follow up, where we'll share more about what our participating companies have in store for 2022 and what they think Hawaii needs to foster innovation.
The original 16 players were:
AI.Fish -— is a computer vision and artificial intelligence company with significant ongoing R&D in data science, deep learning, convolutional neural networks and object detection and tracking to address problems in marine sustainability and conservation.
Goodman Technologies LLC — Goodman Technologies LLC is a small business that performs professional, scientific, system engineering, and technical services.
Hawaii Innovation Laboratory -— A University of Hawaii at Manoa startup that researches and develops solar and biomedical technologies.
LifeDNA — A company that uses customers' DNA samples to generate personalized nutrition, health, fitness, and wellness reports.
Malama Solar - A residential photovoltaic panel and battery storage business that was awarded the distinction of being PBN's Fastest Growing Companies in Hawaii last year.
Nalu Scientific — A software company that specializes in advanced mixed signal integrated circuits with applications in particle tracking and time of flight measurements.
Nimbus AI LLC — A team that uses a data-driven approach and machine learning to forecast cloud cover for the solar industry.
Parklinq — A public parking app that seeks to reduce carbon emissions while finding spaces for parkers, and generating income for those with extra parking spots.
Pear Suite — A cloud-based platform that enables volunteers, healthcare workers, and students to identify and address the health and social service needs of older adults in a scalable and cost-effective way.
Piko Provisions — A baby food company that sources sustainable, locally grown ingredients with no additives, preservatives, or artificial flavors.
Polu Energy — A company that is developing a "containerized clean energy generator" powered by the salt ions in ocean water, groundwater, and seawater desalination brine.
Shaka Guide — A tourist information travel app that offers location-based tours using storytelling and music by local artists.
Shaka Shoots LLC — A photography service that offers unlimited sessions with unlimited photos that are then uploaded to an online gallery, with customers' favorite pics selected for professional editing.
Shifted Energy — A software company that utilizes advanced machine learning to provide utilities and distributed energy providers a path to rapidly deploy and easily manage thousands of demand response and thermal energy storage assets.
Smart Yields — A Honolulu-based agricultural technology firm that uses data to advice farmers.
TurnoverBnB — A cleaning service app that helps customers schedule, pay, and find Airbnb vacation rental cleaners and Airbnb cleaning services.
