The results are in for the first round of our Pittsburgh Inno Madness competition, which will now see eight local startups face off in a new set of pairings to determine the startup that the Pittsburgh Inno readership community wants to invest in the most.
Several pairings saw a back-and-forth flip in the greater number of votes cast for them over the past week, while others had a landslide victory from the start. Congratulations to Allvision IO, Carnegie Foundry, de-bias, Farm to Flame Energy, Honeycomb Credit, MindTrace, Sustainible and TouchWood Labs — all of whom now make up the second round of pairings. You can read brief descriptions and visit the respective websites of these participants below the second round bracket.
Also, a shout-out is owed to Arch Access Control, Cardsona, Dization, Idelic, Kloopify, Selling Later, STACK and Tronix3D for being nominated in this inaugural edition of Inno Madness. While these startups didn't make it on to the second round, they nevertheless are worth following in the months and years to come.
The second round of voting begins now and continues until 6 p.m. on Monday, March 14. Readers can cast one vote per round. We'll open up voting round by round, ultimately crowning an INNO MADNESS winner on March 29. Be sure to be subscribed to the free and twice-weekly Pittsburgh Inno email newsletter, the Beat, to be up-to-date on the latest round results and future pairings.
Meet the Players in the second round (in alphabetical order):
Allvision IO | spatial data and analytics company developing solutions that can process lidar, imagery, video and trajectory data from mobile mapping systems for use in applications like those relating to transportation infrastructure, asset management and GIS
Carnegie Foundry | robotics and AI venture studio in partnership with the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University to commercialize innovative IP and advanced prototypes for new applications in industrial automation
de-bias | Software as a service (SaaS) platform that surveys members of organizations to provide assessment data that can then lead to internal planning aimed at addressing biases
Farm to Flame Energy | provides affordable and renewable power to areas that lack it via a scalable generator capable of using multiple plant-based feedstocks for smokeless and odorless electricity generation
Honeycomb Credit | small business loan crowdfunding platform where businesses can borrow funds from their own customers and fans
MindTrace | software developer creating tools that aid neurosurgeons in surgical planning through its machine learning platform, which claims to simulate surgical plans that can then predict a patient's potential cognitive outcome before surgery
Sustainible | helps organizations determine the likelihood of business success and provides customized evaluations and suggested refinement strategies to increase the overall impact of an enterprise
TouchWood Labs | maker of a modular IoT unit that embeds into an assortment of materials that can then turn any surface into an interactive digital display
Vote in the second round here. Read contest rules here.
Did you miss the first round or need an Inno Madness refresher?
In summary, Inno Madness is a 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 overall bracket is designed to shine a spotlight on 16 innovative, fast-growing local businesses.
This year's bracket was assembled based on reader nominations. Because this is the first year of Pittsburgh Inno Madness' launch, seeding was determined by alphabetical order out of the nominations Pittsburgh Inno's editorial team selected. Meet the participants below and read the contest rules here.
The goal of Inno Madness is to give a snapshot of some of the most promising tech companies in Pittsburgh. It is by no means a complete list of Pittsburgh's best startups, nor is it a list of the 16 most-funded startups in the region.
Instead, the bracket is meant to ideally represent the full breadth and diversity of the ecosystem. In the end, think of the bracket as just another fun look into some of the other local tech companies you need to know about in 2022.
