Here Are All 90 Startups Competing in the 2018 Minnesota Cup

Attendees gather at a launch event for the 2018 Minnesota Cup in March. Photo by Craig Bares, Minnesota Cup.

By Maddy Kennedy

May 30, 2018, 02:44pm CDT

The Minnesota Cup, the state's largest startup competition, officially kicked off Wednesday with the announcement of the 90 local startups that will compete in the Cup's 14th season.

Created and managed by the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Cup is a statewide, five-month-long competition where local startups compete for a share of $500,000 in prize money. More than 1,600 entrepreneurs applied to this year's competition, the Cup said in a release. This is an increase of 22 percent from last year, and a new record for MN Cup.

Additionally, almost half of this year's teams include women, 27 percent include minority team members and eight percent include veterans.

The Cup announced in late March that it planned to add a ninth, new division to the competition this year: education and training. Education and training is MN Cup’s first new division in four years. The competition added its food/agriculture/beverage division in 2014, and impact ventures division in 2012. Healthcare and high tech have dominated the Cup over the last five years. Neither of these new divisions have won the grand prize since they were added to the competition.

This will be the Cup’s first season under Jessica Berg’s leadership. Berg took over as director in November after the Cup’s former director, Melissa Kjolsing-Lynch, stepped down last fall. The startup that Kjolsing-Lynch co-founded with her brother, Recovree, is a semifinalist in this year's impact ventures division.

After a semifinalist reception on June 6, the competition will continue largely out of the public eye for the rest of the summer. In August, Three finalists from each division will be chosen to present their progress and plans. Winners in each division will receive $30,000 and a chance to win the $50,000 grand prize in October.

Nearly 15,000 Minnesotans have participated in the competition since it began in 2005, according to the University of Minnesota, and finalists have raised more than $280 million in capital. Last year's grand prize winner, MicroOptx, raised $1.4 million less than a month after winning the competition.

"MN Cup is a contest, but it's also a mentorship program," MN Cup co-founder Scott Litman said in a statement. "All semifinal teams, even those who don't take away the top award, are winning something very valuable – the chance to be coached by some of the most successful business leaders and entrepreneurs in the state."

Here are all 90 companies competing in this year's Minnesota Cup:

Energy/Clean Tech/Water