Artificial intelligence software maker Rewire Neuroscience won the inaugural Angel Oregon Tech competition and landed a $125,000 investment.
The competition, organized by Oregon Entrepreneurs Network and in partnership with TechFestNW, culminated with nine companies pitching on stage during the annual TechFestNW event May 21.
AOTech is a revamped version of OEN’s previous Angel Oregon investor conference. That event grew over a 12-year period to include technology startups and startups from other industries pitching angel investors. It was an important event in the ecosystem but had become unfocused.
In 2018, OEN started unveiling new more focused startup pitch events for different industries. The first was food and then this year, technology.
Rewire makes AI software aimed at biomedical image analysis. The company’s AI tool, called Pipsqueak, is based off of something founder and CEO John Harkness built during his post-doctorate research at Washington State University.
Pipsqueak helps biomedical researchers identify and count cells in images. By having the computer do the tedious task, it standardizes and speeds the process.
The event also had three other awards, called the Include Awards, given to early stage Black, Indigenous and people of color founders. Each winner receives a $5,000 nondilutive grant. This award was created by the Black Founders Matter Fund.
The three winners were:
- Bless Kinga of 1hubfashion, an online marketplace for new street wear brands.
- Damola Omotosho of Glü, an artificial intelligence tool that can communicate with users across devices to keep track of family health.
- Trang Ho and Trang Sharbaugh of Masa an online farmers market to help connect local farmers to consumers.
