The fifth year of Inno Madness kicked off with a bang.
The annual bracket challenge putting Tampa Bay companies in a friendly head-to-head competition brought a number of close calls across the 32 startups, with some major upsets along the way.
Two-time reigning champ Paragon Cyber Solutions narrowly eked out a win against newcomer Funnel Leasing, winning in a 48% to 52% victory. But that wasn't the closest call of the round: Two matchups were near deadlocked. St. Petersburg-based Spontivly took the victory over Tampa-based Genesis Systems with a 51% win, and Tampa-based Ideal Agent similarly just beat Tampa's Abacode by the same margin.
Tech & Flow Ventures had the biggest upset, dominating top-seeded ReliaQuest with a 65% win over the tech giant's 35%. Tampa-based AppyHour similarly brought the upsets, snagging the win against Sarasota's AeroVanti Club by 63%.
Cast your votes in round 2 of Tech Madness — the voting ends March 14 at midnight and then will go on to the exciting eight startups.
Round Two matchups
Matchup 1
Bedrock: A St. Pete-based company that helps procurement and finance teams recover lost revenue, simplifies payments, minimizes risk and reduces onboarding time.
vs
Ideal Agent: A proptech company offering a platform that connects sellers and buyers with brokers nationally. The company was the runner-up in 2021's Inno Madness competition.
Matchup 2
Tech & Flow Ventures: A St. Pete-based startup that offers financial technology and education to empower users to build wealth.
vs
Spontivly: A St. Pete startup that moved to the region in January 2022 with its community-focused SaaS technology. It has been on a funding streak since, racking up investors like Mark Cuban and TampaBay.Ventures.
Matchup 3
Hyalta Aeronautics: A St. Pete-based company offering patented, unmanned systems to be used for military and commercial purposes.
vs
Signature Athletics: The Tampa-based company launched a patent-pending technology that allows parents to directly order their uniforms — as well as team merchandise and some sports equipment — that lets the apparel be made on-demand and entirely in the U.S. In 2022, it closed a $2 million "seed plus" round.
Matchup 4
Cope Notes: The Tampa-based startup offers an SMS messaging system to provide a personalized messaging platform for users' mental and emotional well-being.
vs
LunaJoy Health: A St. Pete-based startup backed by Y-Combinator and offers a digital care clinic for women throughout their life span, from puberty to perimenopause.
Matchup 5
Sensie: A Tampa-based wellness tech startup that uses smartphone sensors to measure a user’s emotional state. It recently partnered with a Johns Hopkins lab, tapping the head of the lab to become Sensie's "chief intelligence officer."
vs
Twos: A Tampa-based company that’s part social media, part note-taking app and closed a $1.4 million pre-seed round in 2022.
Matchup 6
Blue Innovations Group: A St. Pete-based company headed up by a former Tesla executive who is launching an electric boat company.
vs
Glewee: A Clearwater-based company that works as a broker of sorts for brands and influencers to ensure a solid deal on both ends. It works with more than 675 brands and 11,000 influencers.
Matchup 7
AppyHour: A Tampa-based app that showcases where live music, food and drink deals are happening locally
vs
Red Rover: Founded by PODS co-founder, it improves upon the previous model that offers a patent-pending ramp system and trucks for free at various locations, simply charging for the cost of the container. In the two years since the launch, the company has raised $75 million.
Matchup 8
Kitchenery: A Tampa-based company building a line of cordless small kitchen appliances like toasters, blenders and mixers that participated in the Techstars Stanley Black & Decker accelerator.
vs
Paragon Cyber Solutions: A cybersecurity company providing expertise to startups, government agencies and commercial companies. It is a two-time winner of Inno Madness, taking the crown in 2021 and 2022.
