Minne Inno — the Business Journal's news outlet focused on the startup scene — is proud to present its fifth installment of the Blazer Awards.
The following Blazer winners represent the one company in each category of our earlier-announced Inno on Fire finalists that's truly lighting its industry on fire. Winners were selected by Minne Inno/Business Journal editors based on the strength of their applications, the needs they're meeting and their growth trajectory.
Startup of the Year:
Rise Modular
Apartment construction is booming, but the commercial real estate market is simultaneously experiencing soaring construction costs, labor shortages and supply-chain issues.
Minneapolis-based Rise Modular is tackling these roadblocks and the ongoing housing shortage with a more cost- and time-efficient way to build multifamily developments.
Rise uses a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled production facility in Owatonna to build six-sided building modules that are then assembled on a development site within days. By moving 70% to 80% of a development’s construction indoors, costs, quality and safety are all more controllable.
Founded in 2018 by Christian Lawrence, Rise is on pace to build 449 units of housing this year, a 55% increase from last year.
The company’s service model proves that modular developments can be both attractive and high quality, because it works with developers from the earliest stages of the design and manufacturing process through an integrated team of experts in development, design, manufacturing and construction.
Rise has grown from 70 employees in January 2021 to more than 150 as of May 2022. It still expects to hire two dozen more by year end.
Community Builder:
Phyllis Wheatley Community Center
The Phylis Wheatley Community Center, which offers career-skills training to North Minneapolis residents, was struggling as a limited pool of funding led to programming cuts and reduced capacity. That was until Suzanne Burks was appointed executive director in 2020.
Since Burks joined, the center has increased its budget from well below $1 million to $5 million in fiscal year 2021 by expanding revenue sources such as grants and donations from givers like the NBA Foundation and Target Corporate Giving.
Now that the center no longer relies almost entirely on contracts with Hennepin County, it has expanded its programming and is emphasizing teaching skills focused on the tech industry. That includes a program launched this year called Digital TechWorks Academy, which teaches young people tech skills that open doors to employment opportunities.
Media and Marketing:
Skykit
Minneapolis-based Skykit provides digital signage such as menus, dashboards and content feeds to workplaces and businesses across numerous industries, including retail, restaurants, health care and finance.
Skykit got its start in April 2020 after being spun out of an incubator run by Agosto Inc., a crowd-services company later acquired by Pythian Services Inc. That was just two weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic closed nearly all of its potential clients, including offices, restaurants, bars and factories. Despite the setback, the company used the lockdown time to invest in product development, sales and marketing to be ready when businesses were ready to reopen.
Those investments have flowered into 80% quarter-over-quarter growth over the past two quarters.
CEO and co-founder Irfan Khan said the company is now moving from a pure expansion mindset to a place where it can add more services for its more than 450 clients. That includes a data-visualization tool that displays real-time performance indicators.
Khan said the company's success is due in large part to its "anything is possible" mindset, which delivers on huge, complicated challenges.
Health and Wellness:
Mitesco Inc. (parent company of the Good Clinic)
Mitesco Inc. (OTC: MITI) operates The Good Clinic, which delivers a new model of primary care by leveraging nurse practitioners to create a personalized wellness plan for each client.
“There's a lot of services out there like urgent care and telehealth services that are more than happy to jump in and solve an immediate problem,” said CEO Larry Diamond. “But when you don't have the medical records some portion of the time, you're not providing the best possible care.”
The clinics are strategically placed in populated neighborhoods, often in the ground floor of apartment developments, to enhance accessibility.
Diamond said the company’s whole-patient approach drives better outcomes and reduces the cost of care.
Throughout the past year, St. Louis Park-based Mitesco focused on proving out the concept of The Good Clinic model, a process that included launching six clinics in the Twin Cities metro, Lawrence said.
Mitesco now plans on opening 31 clinics by the end of 2023 and 98 by 2026. That expansion includes new clinics in Colorado, Arizona and Florida.
Med-tech:
SynerFuse
SynerFuse Inc. is on a mission to help end the opioid crisis by deploying a novel pain-relief solution to spinal fusion procedures. The platform combines spinal fusion and neuromodulation into a single operation that offers a long-lasting alternative to a narcotic-based regimen in relieving pain.
More than 500,000 spinal fusion procedures are performed every year in the U.S. with as many as 40% of cases resulting in chronic pain. Eden Prairie-based SynerFuse estimates its platform could prevent as many as 200,000 patients from becoming addicted to opioid pain killers annually.
"We're going after the opioid crisis. And we are going after it because it's such a scourge on society," said CEO and co-founder Justin Zenanko. "Everyone can relate to someone who has suffered from opioid abuse. What we're trying to do is stop opioid addiction from ever occurring because there's no pain in the back."
A proof-of-concept study is underway and will be completed in July 2023.
To date, SynerFuse has raised $12 million and is actively raising a $10 million round.
Fintech:
Branch
Branch, a Minneapolis-based tech platform aimed at helping employers speed up paydays for workers, has been one of the fastest-growing startups in the Midwest since it was founded in 2015.
In March, Branch raised a $75 million Series C round, which it's using to fund growth in the trucking, logistics, last-mile delivery and restaurant sectors. CEO Atif Siddiqi told Minne Inno at the time that the company is growing 700% year-over-year, a dramatic jump from the 300% annual growth it reported when it raised a $48 million Series B round in August 2021.
To further fuel that growth, Branch announced it would double its number of employees, which totaled more than 120 in March.
To date, Branch has raised $633 million, $500 million of which came through a credit facility during its Series B.
Early-stage startup:
TurnSignl
TurnSignl is a Twin Cities-based tech startup that provides real-time legal guidance to drivers involved in law enforcement interactions, as well as auto accidents, while using a camera to record the incidents.
The Minneapolis-based company has expanded its scope to operate in numerous states, including Georgia, California, Tennessee and Florida. TurnSignl serves thousands of drivers through individual and corporate partnerships and is planning a nationwide expansion.
Late last year, it also announced a pilot program that would give up to 3,000 residents of Brooklyn Center free access to the service.
Launched in late 2020, the company has earned several major industry awards, including winning the American Bar Association’s Techshow startup competition and the VeeCon Pitch Contest.
Growing company:
Yardstik
Yardstik Inc. is creating a new category in the background-check industry that CEO and co-founder Matt Meents calls human security.
The Minnetonka-based company is growing rapidly as it finds a product-market fit for its platform that transforms the traditional background-check, certification and training model for gig marketplaces and vertical software-as-a-service platforms.
Founded in April 2020, the company has raised $12 million, including an $8 million Series A round in February 2022. That most recent raise is fueling the company’s growth, which includes an aggressive hiring strategy.
Meents said culture is an important component to the company’s continued success. Yardstik has been recognized as one of MSPBJ’s Best Places to Work.
Sports Startup:
Prevent Biometrics
Prevent Biometrics, a sports-tech startup that creates a concussion-monitoring mouthguard, is now the only company anyone should trust to detect concussions in real time, CEO Mike Shogren said.
The Edina-based company announced earlier this month it was participating in a multiyear partnership that would equip 40 professional rugby teams in the United Kingdom and France with its mouthguards.
The joint project, known as the TaCKLE research project (tackle and contact kinematics, load and exposure) is using an evidence-based approach to study concussions and player welfare, according to a statement. The project will deploy roughly 1,000 mouthguards annually beginning in July.
After making large inroads in rugby leagues around the world, Shogren anticipates opportunities in U.S. professional leagues aren’t far behind.
“We’re proving to everybody that we can do lots of people and we can scale it easily,” he said. “It's a very wearable product and it works really well.”
