Every story and newsletter published by Minne Inno seeks to highlight local individuals and businesses driving change in Minnesota. With our second annual Inno on Fire celebration, we want to shine a little extra light on the ones that are truly setting the scene on fire.
In the coming month leading up to Inno on Fire, we’ll be publishing stories about a handful of these fast-moving companies. We’ve already highlighted a few in the past, and will be sharing and updating those stories.
We invite you, your team, family, friends, or anyone interested in the Twin Cities tech, startup and innovation ecosystem to join us for a big party on June 19 at Muse Event Center in Minneapolis. Get tickets here.
At the event, we’ll announce a handful of people and/or companies that a panel of honorable judges has deemed to be the most “on fire.” These will be our Inno Blazers, and will receive a sweet prize along with eternal glory in the startup community.
So what are the exact qualifications for being on fire? Glad you asked. We sourced nominations from Beat readers and others in the community to find founders and companies that had a banner year. This could include new fundings, exciting partnerships or tireless support for the startup community.
It’s impossible to quantify a healthy, thriving ecosystem with one single metric, like job growth or revenue. An emerging hub is the result of, yes, fast-growing companies, but also of new funds, hard-working mentors, locally focused investors, entrepreneurship professors, and many, many more.
A healthy ecosystem also reflects the breadth of innovation that’s happening in a particular market, not just in the tech sector but also in government, food, wellness and more. That’s why our Inno on Fire list is an eclectic list of people and companies from different industries and stages, representing all of the moving parts that make for an ecosystem that’s on fire.
Let’s get to know this year’s Inno on Fire!
TECHNOLOGY (Large)
Sezzle: Financial-technology startup Sezzle makes it easier for consumers to pay for online purchases in installments. The company recently raised around $6 million and announced plans to debut on the Australian Securities Exchange. Sezzle also secured $100 million from Stamford, Conn.-based investment firm Bastion, which provides debt capital to finance companies, in late 2018.
ClickSWITCH: In 2018, fin-tech startup ClickSWITCH raised a $3.5 million Series A and doubled the number of employees in its Twin Cities office. The company, which simplifies the process of moving a person’s direct-deposit and bill-payment information from one bank to another, also recently began working with T-Mobile to power a portion of its new banking service.
Inspectorio: Target + Techstars alum Inspectorio makes mobile applications for supply chain inspections. Last year, the company raised $10 million in venture capital.
Bleachr: Sports-tech startup Bleachr offers a mobile platform aimed at helping professional sports teams engage fans at their events. Bleachr was ranked the No. 1 sports app in Canada during the 2018 Rogers Cup and Coupe Rogers, and the No. 3 sports app in the U.S. during the 2018 Western & Southern Tennis Open. The platform is used by the St. Paul Saints, Syracuse University, Virginia Tech, Loyola and Pitt, as well as more than a half-dozen professional tennis organizations.
Alula: Alula is a smart home security and automation company formed in 2018 from the merger of two heavyweights in the space. The company opened a 68,000 square-foot headquarters in St. Paul's Midway Innovation center in February and is hiring local talent to support its growth.
Branch: Minneapolis-based Branch launched Pay, a suite of features on its app to help hourly workers forecast and advance their pay. Pay was recognized at the SXSW Innovation Awards.
Tech Dump: Tech Dump expanded nationally through the acquisition of Scrubb.IT, a mail-in electronics recycling program. The company also grew its local footprint with the opening of a new warehouse in St. Paul.
Dispatch: This B2B delivery startup launched in the Twin Cities and has since grown to a dozen markets across the country and raised more than $10 million in funding within the last year. Dispatch also won Minne Inno's second annual Tech Madness tournament.
TECHNOLOGY (Small)
Vitals Aware Services: Vitals' app, built in partnership with the Autism Society of Minnesota, was built to prevent situations between vulnerable people and first responders from escalating. The company has about 1,800 individual users and nearly 60 first responder agencies on board in Minnesota. Vitals has also recruited industry experts to join its team, including former Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau, who was named the startup's president in September 2018.
Runerra: After participating in the Target + Techstars Retail Accelerator, Runerra landed a pilot with the retail giant and raised a 500,000 preseed round.
NimbeLink: As of last year, Plymouth-based NimbeLink was the eighth fastest growing private company in Minnesota, according to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. The venture-capital-backed IoT startup makes tiny modems to connect cellular networks, allowing equipment and other items to be monitored over the internet. NimbeLink was one of 17 Minnesota companies to make an appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
HabitAware: HabitAware won the 2018 Minnesota Cup, beating out 89 other local companies and walking away with combined winnings of more than $80,000. Earlier in the year, HabitAware was awarded a $300,000 federal grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to further develop Keen. Keen was also named on Time Magazine's list of Best 2018 Inventions.
Recovree: During Recovree's first year in business, the St. Paul-based startup launched a web-based portal for peer recovery coaches and began offering recovery coaching services to employers and individuals. Recovree also raised a small amount of seed funding and won a North Dakota startup competition.
Chuck Olsen: Through Visual Inc. and Wellness VR, Olsen brings the power of virtual reality to seniors and people living with disabilities. VR creates an opportunity for seniors to bring down anxiety and escape from health issues without another medication or invasive treatment. Visual has hundreds of active users and partnerships with Brave New Workshop, MPR, MN Opera, the U of M Goldstein Museum and more.
Eric Martell: After stepping down from his position as managing director of gener8tor Minnesota last fall, Martell founded Pear Commerce, a retail-tech company that aims to simplify retail marketing by connecting advertisements for consumer packaged goods directly with retailers. In the last six months, Pear has gone from pre-revenue to closing its first national account. The company is also close to completing a round of seed funding.
EDUCATION/GOVERNMENT
Civic Eagle: In early 2018, Civic Eagle pivoted its business model to become B2B with the goal of helping corporations and nonprofits track legislation relevant to their organizations. Since then, Civic Eagle has raised $600,000 and gone from zero to $8,500 in monthly recurring revenue. It's also part of the Techstars 2019 class.
SayKid: SayKid makes conversational software and delivers it through a plush robot so that kids can learn in a safe and engaging environment. The company has sold out if its first model and is doing a pilot program with one of the largest early childhood education companies in the country. SayKid has also been recognized at local and national startup events including Beta Showcase, Minnedemo, SXSW EDU and Harvard New Venture.
Spark-Y: Spark-Y is a local nonprofit empowering youth through hands-on education rooted in sustainability and entrepreneurship. The organization connects with 1,900 high school students each year through its 35 programs in 12 schools.
Village Financial Cooperative: Village Financial Cooperative, Minnesota's first black-led credit union, recently announced that it's partnering with Square to bring financial education and technology to North Minneapolis. By teaming up with the San Francisco-based fin-tech company, VFC will provide educational programming for small business owners as well as the point-of-sale hardware small business owners need to take credit card payments.
MEDICAL/HEALTH/WELLNESS
Nice Healthcare: Minneapolis-based Nice makes it easier to get health problems taken care of through its network of nurse practitioners. The company has around 100 Minnesota-based clients and more than 10,000 lives under management. Nice is also approaching $2 million in annual recurring revenue. The company also received $350,000 from Indie.vc.
Elyse Ash: Ash's company Fruitful Fertility, founded in 2017, connects those struggling with fertility issues who are in need of emotional support with individuals and mentors who have had similar experiences. Fruitful, which was recently accepted into the second Lunar Startups cohort, is now international and has 3,000 members in 12 countries. Ash also leads writing strategy at GoKart Labs and is co-founder of Maternity Tech Founders Collective.
RxFunction: RxFunction is commercializing Walkasins, the first wearable sensory neuroprosthesis for an estimated three million patients with balance problems and/or a high risk of falling. The company is working with major research institutions across the country to test out its product. RxFunction has also grown from three to 11 employees in just over a year.
Meghan Sharkus: While still in high school, Meghan Sharkus founded ExpressionMed, a medical accessory startup creating adhesives for wearable devices. The adhesives feature fun designs and allow wearers to remove them easily and comfortably, with no residue upon removal. Sharkus’ company was one of six to participate in the inaugural gBETA Medtech program last year. She recently completed her sophomore year at St. Thomas, and was awarded $100,000 through a Thiel Fellowship.
Bind Benefits: Health-benefits startup Bind closed on $70 million in 2018, the year's second-largest venture capital raise.
Asiya: A social enterprise created with the mission of increasing sports participation rates among Muslim girls by developing activewear that enables physical activity and sports participation while upholding religious and cultural beliefs. Within the last year, grew its brand with more products and was accepted into the inaugural Lunar Startups cohort.
Chanl Health: Chanl is making cardiovascular rehabilitation programs easier and more accessible through its mobile platform. Founders say that it is a quarter of the cost of standard rehab programs and is capable of increasing participation by three fold. Chanl recently piloted its program with HealthPartners and landed a contract with one of the 10 largest health systems in the country.
Recombinetics: Gene-editing startup Recombinetics closed on $34 million in funding last year to accelerate development of its "oinkubator" technology, which could eventually let scientists grow human organs inside of pigs. Recombinetics uses gene-editing technology to customize animals for the agribusiness and biomedical markets, using a technique called TALENs that was co-developed by researchers at the University of Minnesota.
Binary Bridge: BackpackEMR, Binary Bridge's flagship product, is now used by nearly a dozen organizations around the world to provide efficient and low-cost electronic medical records to rural communities. The company secured $220,000 in a planned $500,000 round this past year.
BetterYou: BetterYou's AI-powered platform tracks a variety of wellness metrics including physical movement, social interaction, education and mindfulness. Five months after launch, BetterYou has raised $400,000, landed seven paid pilots.
Bright Health: In late 2018, Bright raised a $200 million Series C – likely the largest venture capital round in Minnesota history. Within the last year, the company has tripled its geographic footprint and enrollment.
SOFTWARE
Total Expert: In October 2018, Total Expert raised a $20 million Series B round led by Emergence Capital to fuel the growth of its Marketing Operating System, which helps mortgage lending giants retain customers. The company has also increased its headcount to 180, an increase of 113 percent over the last 12 months.
SalesReach: Marketing-tech company SalesReach has grown quickly over the last year. Currently, it has more than two dozen companies using its tool. The company also raised $750,000 in seed funding.
Coherent Solutions: Minneapolis-based Coherent Solutions provides companies with custom software product development, deployment and consulting. Over the last eight years, the company has grown 20% year over year and expanded to Europe with new offices in Sofia, Bulgaria as well as Minsk and Brest, Belarus. Coherent pulled in $45.8 million in revenue last year, up from $37.7 million in 2017.
Carrot Health: Since December 2018, Carrot Health has worked with Health Alliance Medical Plans, an Illinois-based insurer, to create patient risk scores. These scores are generated from data brokers, public records, government agencies and other sources with the goal of identifying people at risk for preventable diseases.
Drip: Within the last year, Drip debuted a CRM platform for e-commerce and grew its headcount from 30 to 100.
FOOD/AGRICULTURE/LIFESTYLE
Local Crate: Techstars alum Local Crate raised $1.4 million in seed funding in a round co-led by several Midwestern venture capital firms. It also expanded its executive team, adding Erin Newkirk as its chief marketing officer and James Collins as its vice president of operations. Local Crate also announced plans to expand into more markets.
Foodsby: Foodsby, a Minneapolis-based startup that delivers restaurant food to office buildings, announced big expansion plans after closing on a $13.5 million round of funding led by Piper Jaffray Cos.' merchant banking business. Foodsby also expanded its leadership team, hiring Alex Ware, a former Buffalo Wild Wings and Pepsi executive, as president. Ryan Johnson, formerly vice president of engineering at BuzzFeed, also joined the company as its vice president of engineering.
Sentera: Ag-tech startup Sentera makes drones and data-analysis tools for the agriculture sector. In 2018, the company raised $14 million in venture capital.
Rob Davis: Davis, director of the Center for Pollinators at Fresh Energy, is a national leader in the "Solar Farm to Table" movement, which advocates for reimagining traditional solar farms to establish acres of flowering meadows that benefit pollinators. Davis assisted in the creation of Minnesota's first solar-brewed beer and has partnered with local establishments on their own Solar Farm to Table creations.
Conservis: Conservis helps growers manage costs and investor levels as well as understand what drives field profitability. The ag-tech business recently partnered with Rabo AgriFinance to help farmers better utilize their data to make more informed business decisions.
Love Your Melon: Love Your Melon came in at No. 106 on the Inc. 5000 list, reporting $31.5 million in 2017 revenue while donating 50 percent of its profits to the fight against pediatric cancer. Over the last five years, the company has donated nearly 160,000 beanies to children battling cancer and has given $6.18 million to pediatric cancer and research organizations. In 2018, Love Your Melon opened a retail store, its very first, in Minneapolis' North Loop. Quinn and Keller were also recognized on Forbes' "30 Under 30 List."
SUPPORTERS
Mickeli Bedore: For more than a year, Bedore's Coffee and Closers speaker series has provided local tech founders with the sales and marketing training they need to grow their businesses. Coffee and Closers also reports that it reaches 10,000 additional people each month through its podcasts and videos.
Atland Ventures: Atland is the first independent, for-profit, student-led venture capital firm in the country. Atland has raised more than $500,000 and invested in deals alongside Revolution's Rise of the Rest, Great North Labs, Y Combinator and others.
Dario Otero: Founded in 2016, Otero's company, Youth Lens 360, is a marketing agency that helps young creatives (ages 14-24) contribute to real-world projects and provides them with the platform to launch their own company.
Adam Choe: As the managing director of gener8tor Minnesota, Choe has assisted more than 35 startups within the last 28 months. He's helped these companies raise millions in funding and connected founders to opportunities on a global scale. In his spare time, he's also built his own startup, Yonder, which supports children through the anxiety of medical proceedings like dental cleanings.
Silicon Prairie Portal and Exchange: SPPX helps early-stage companies in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan raise up to $5 million through crowdfunding. The organization's blockchain-based fin-tech platform reduces friction, assures compliance and helps users maintain a distributed ledger to manage stakeholders.
Michael Gibbons: In addition to his day job at Outsystems, Gibbons works with organizations in the Twin Cities to build apps for companies to advance their web and mobile application use. This past year, he worked with Twin Cities Film Fest to build an app that helped connect 15,000 attendees to a variety of resources. He also created Femme Obsessed to connect consumers to local women-owned businesses. Gibbons also mentors a number of tech startups around town.
Hack the Gap: After its fifth hackathon, Hack the Gap began looking to expand its program for women and non-binary tech workers to other cities. The annual event is designed to give women an non-binary people in tech the chance to build their network through a shared experience while creating a refuge from traditional tech culture.
BETA: Since 2013, BETA has provided local founders with the resources required to scale their businesses. Within the last year, it has partnered with WeWork to help its startups find dedicated workspace. The organization also launched a press program that provides media messaging and interview training to startups.
