Our Rhode Island Inno Madness competition is here. We've got 16 local companies vying for the coveted title of 2022 Inno Madness champion.
What is Inno Madness?
Inno Madness is our friendly, bracket-style challenge in which 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 bracket is designed to shine a spotlight on 16 innovative, fast-growing local businesses.
The bracket, which Rhode Island Inno’s editorial team assembled based on nominations submitted by readers in recent weeks, encompasses a broad range of private, venture capital-backed or bootstrapped firms. In some cases, startups in their earliest stages will compete against some established favorites.
Take a look at the participating companies in our bracket and read the contest rules here.
The bracket is meant to represent the full breadth and diversity of the ecosystem. In the end, think of the bracket as just a fun look into tech local companies you need to know in 2022. Last year, Artist Republik took home the trophy. The company was acquired earlier this year by Friendable Inc., a mobile and marketing tech company.
Take a look at our voting guide below. Then, scroll down to cast your vote.
When can I vote?
Rhode Island’s Inno Madness includes several stages, and the competition gets narrowed down over the course of several weeks. We’ll keep you posted on who’s advancing, and who’s not, right here on RhodeIslandInno.com and in the Beat. Subscribe here if you're not already on the list.
Here’s the voting schedule to keep track of each move as voters decide who’s advancing to the next level. Voting will close at 9 a.m. on the final day of each round to give us time to tally the votes before the next round starts.
Round 1: March 22 to March 28
Round 2: March 29 to April 4
Round 3: April 5 to April 11
Round 4: April 12 to 18
2022 Inno Madness Champion announced: April 19
Now, it’s time to get to the voting. Once each round of voting closes, we’ll advance the winners.
How do I vote?
You can vote in the bracket below, which will be automatically updated throughout the competition.
Let's go!
Meet this year’s players, which are broken up into four regions.
Region A
- SquadLocker: SquadLocker bills itself as more than an apparel production and sales company. Its overall goals are to improve convenience for families, open up access to all students and relieve the administrative burden on officials and organizers
- 1440 Media: This company’s newsletter prioritizes bias-free reporting and after five years is reaching 1.3 million Americans across the country.
- Marstone Inc.: Marstone's mission is to enhance financial literacy, deepen financial inclusion and humanize finance for all by enabling organizations to offer digital wealth services to their clients.
- Feast & Fettle: This company is a premium delivery food service to Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Its team prepares, packs and delivers home-cooked meals right to a customer’s door.
Region B
- VoltServer: VoltServer is trying to commercialize the distribution of electricity in a natively digital format. Its patented platform delivers safe electricity where, when and how it is needed.
- Mocingbird: Mocingbird offers a cloud-based solution that manages medical professionals' licenses, certifications and continuing medical education in one place.
- GoPeer: This company has created a platform that allows families to connect with qualified college students who are available to tutor.
- Pangea.app: This app company is connecting college students to freelance work across the country. The company says thousands of businesses have turned to Pangea for their hiring needs.
Region C
- Ritual Motion: Ritual Motion created a platform that incorporates components of Twitch, Discord, Ted Talks and Clubhouse to provide a new alternative platform where gamers, esports fans and gaming organizations can promote, share and monetize their assets and brands.
- Bombi: This baby-gear company specializes in eco-conscious strollers. It has eliminated single-use plastics in packaging and makes strollers from fabric made of at least 50% recycled plastic bottles. The company also donates 1% of sales to 1% for the Planet through the Rozalia Project and the National Forest Foundation.
- Flux Marine: Flux has developed zero-emission, all-electric outboard marine motors that have been designed to deliver the same performance expected from traditional internal combustion outboards.
- Infused Innovations: Infused Innovations takes a security-first approach to help clients create a secure intelligent workplace and reimagine their existing business models.
Region D
- Wingspans: Wingspans helps diverse youth find a career through rich, personal stories and helps companies drive racial and ethnic diversity in their talent pipelines.
- Pointz: Pointz has created a safety-focused mapping app for bikes and scooters that leverages crowdsourcing.
- The Flourish Fund: This company runs a baby registry focused on wellness essentials for mom and baby, self care and support. In addition to the traditional baby gear, parents can register for vetted support services, such as doulas, sleep and lactation consultants, yoga and massages.
- dataArrows: This company is developing a solution to reduce energy consumption while assuring occupants' health and comfort by creating real-time digital twins of buildings in a 3D environment and leveraging AI for automating HVAC operation.
