San Antoni-based Betty's Co. won the $50,000 grand prize in the 2021 iteration of Tech Fuel. The startup pitch competition for early stage tech ventures was hosted by Bexar County and Tech Bloc, a local tech advocacy nonprofit, at a Thursday night event at the Tobin Center downtown.
A total of $100,000 was given out with every finalist receiving a cash prize.
Betty’s Co. is an online women-focused health company that offers health and wellness counseling, resources and products, most geared to younger women. Founded in January 2020 by Jennifer Newell, the startup plans to eventually serve as a one-stop shop for women seeking health care, particularly gynecological care.
Newell is creating a mobile app, mobile clinic, as well as partnerships with universities to provide these type of resources, as previously reported by the Business Journal.
The competition initially selected 25 semifinalists to pitch to a panel of judges in one of five semi-final brackets.
Other finalists included runner-up Alt-Bionics, a biotech company developing bionic limbs for amputees. Third prize winner EmGenisys improves animal production and promotes sustainability through reproductive technologies. Other honorees included IncentiFind, which helps developers, property owners and tenants find money for their real-estate and home improvement projects; and Astroport Space Technologies Inc., which converts moon dust into bricks and material for 3D construction printing of lunar infrastructure.
Originally launched in 2016 as a $50,000 competition, TechFuel doubled the prize money in 2019 through additional funding from the county’s Innovation Fund. Each fiscal year, $1 million in economic incentive funds are allocated by the county to this fund to foster local job recruitment, talent development competitions, business expansion and technical workforce training for targeted technology-based industries.
In 2020, San Antonio-based Backcountry Mills LLC, which does business as Grain4Grain and develops grain drying technology, won the $50,000 grand prize, while the previous year, Rectify, a data protection and privacy startup launched in 2018, won the grand prize.
