The Tampa Bay community has crowned who they believe is the best bet in tech.
Paragon Cyber Solutions claimed its second victory as winner of Inno Madness, after beating out the 35 other local technology companies we tapped for the annual competition.
The cybersecurity company took 62% of the vote in the final round against Tampa-based BlockSpaces. But it avoided some close calls throughout the competition: It was nearly knocked out in the semifinals against proptech company Ideal Agent, with a narrow 51% lead. And in the third round, it beat out St. Pete startup Shamrck with just two votes.
Paragon Cyber Solutions is a woman-, minority- and veteran-owned business based in Tampa specializing in cybersecurity — and includes the Florida Department of Education as a client. The bracket's runner-up BlockSpaces is a Tampa-based company that offers a platform connecting business applications to enterprise blockchain networks.
As a reminder, Tech Madness is a friendly annual competition designed to shine a spotlight on 36 of Tampa Bay's most interesting and exciting technology companies. The companies in the bracket were nominated by the community, and readers voted to advance the winner by picking the startups they’d most want to invest in.
We've included the past round recaps and descriptions of all 36 companies here.
