These are the 2024 Fire Awards honorees in the Igniting category. Igniting companies are startups readying for their next stage of growth and moving toward scale-up. Read about all of this year's honorees here.
Burro
Industry: Agricultural technology
Headquarters: Philadelphia
Burro is looking to lessen some of the burdens associated with agriculture and increase productivity. It created a fleet of autonomous robots that can be deployed in nurseries and in fields with certain crops like blueberries, table grapes, cranberries, citrus and stone fruits, and strawberries grown in raised beds. The plug-and-play technology can learn routes that can then be uploaded to an entire fleet. While Burro launched with a focus on agriculture, the Philadelphia company led by CEO Charlie Andersen has since expanded to deploy its robots for security purposes and in the solar, construction and concrete industries. Next, Burro is looking to expand into mowing technologies. Presently, its robots come in three sizes, the largest of which can carry 1,500 pounds or tow as much as 5,000 pounds. The company says a single unit can offset one tractor and operator in a nursery and that an eight-person team using it to harvest fruit can pick 15% to 30% more with the use of a single Burro. In January, Burro closed a $24 million Series B, bringing its total funding to over $45 million.
Fullthrottle.ai
Industry: Advertising technology
Headquarters: West Chester
For advertisers, connecting multiple smart devices to a single home can be difficult. West Chester advertising technology firm fullthrottle.ai is working to change that. The company — launched in 2016 and led by CEO David Regn — uses advanced artificial intelligence and patented technology to help clients by generating first-party data through a cookie-free method, the ultimate goal of which is resolving audiences across various devices into real in-market addressable households. To date, the company has worked with over 6,000 retail businesses, brands and agencies across the U.S. The fully bootstrapped software as a service firm has steadily grown revenue and in 2023 reported $18.4 million, an increase of more than 31% compared with the $14 million it posted in 2022. The company also reported in the past year it had increased run revenue 202% and posted a more than 300% increase in new business agreements. It has two patents for its technologies, its most recent for an attribution method for audio and video advertisements.
iEcure
Industry: Biotechnology
Headquarters: Blue Bell
Blue Bell-based iEcure is working on a treatment for a genetic disorder in pediatric patients. Its in vivo gene insertion program, ECUR-506, is designed to treat the neonatal onset of ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency, which leads to neurological impairment, seizures, coma and death in pediatric patients. The work iEcure is undertaking hit the Food and Drug Administration trifecta earlier this year when it secured fast track designation. That came after iEcure had previously received rare pediatric disease and orphan drug designations from the FDA, each of which encourage companies to develop new treatments for conditions impacting small patient populations. Led by CEO Joseph Truitt, iEcure was spun out of the University of Pennsylvania in 2021. At the time it emerged from stealth mode with $50 million in backing. A year later, it went on to raise another $65 million in a Series A-1.
