Inno Madness started slow, but it got rolling in the later rounds, with the finalists competing neck and neck and each getting more than 2,000 votes in a furious finale that saw OnSight Technology win by a fraction of a percentage point over HuLoop Automation.
The Business Journal's Inno Madness bracket-style startup competition is decided through voting by readers of the Business Journal's Inno section. There are no monetary or other prizes for the winners ⏤ just the opportunity for a little ink and recognition for the region's startups.
“We were watching it. It’s good to see local technology companies get recognized,” said Graham Ryland, chief operating officer with OnSight Technology.
In contention for the top spot were Auburn-based HuLoop Automation and El Dorado Hills-based OnSight Technology. OnSight Technology makes AI-enabled robots for inspecting solar farms with computer vision. HuLoop sells AI-powered workflow automation software to other businesses. OnSight was founded in 2022. HuLoop was spun out of Folsom-based AgreeYa Solutions in June 2022.
Interest in this year's Inno Madness appeared to pick up as the contest went along. The first round had only 52 votes for 16 entries. Even the third round had only 132 votes. But the final round went past 1,000 votes early, and was nearly tied. Then it went past 2,000 votes and was actually tied. That’s how it remained until the final day when the final tally showed OnSight to be the winner.
The final count was OnSight with 2,042 votes to HuLoop's 2,002.
Inno Madness is an opportunity to get to know some interesting local companies.
This year, those included hardware technology companies Elve Inc., which makes amplifiers for high-bandwidth data transmission on Earth and in space, and Japa Inc., which is deploying hardware and software to better manage parking in lots and structures.
Some of the companies have already raised substantial amounts from venture capital investors. Unstructured recently raised a cumulative $65 million for its technology that allows artificial intelligence to access data from difficult-to-use formats such as HTML and PDFs. Cloud-based smart security company Rhombus Inc. recently raised debt and equity that brings the Sacramento-based company to $63 million raised.
This region is home to interesting food technology companies. Davis-based Oobli makes protein-sweetened foods and soft drinks. A completely different food technology company, Norfolk Healthy Produce, makes modified purple tomatoes with as much antioxidants as blueberries.
A short description of each of the 16 competitors, along with links to stories about them, can be found here. Here are the official rules.
