HabitAware, a tech startup developing a smart awareness tracker to stop behaviors like hair pulling, nail biting and skin picking, won first place in the Minnesota Cup Monday night, walking away with the competition's $50,000 grand prize.
Minneapolis-based HabitAware received an additional $30,000 last month for winning the Cup's high tech division. HabitAware faced off against winners from eight other divisions to claim the grand prize.
Carrot Health, winner of the Health IT division, brought home second place and a $20,000 prize.
HabitAware is led by the husband and wife team of Sameer Kumar, the company's CEO, and Aneela Idnani Kumar, CMO. Together with their friends Kirk Klobe, CTO and Dr. John Pritchard, lead hardware engineer, they founded the company in January 2016.
Aneela has dealt with trichotillomania, the disorder affiliated with impulse control issues, for more than two decades. She and the rest of the team were motivated to start HabitAware to help others struggling with the disorder.
Earlier this summer, HabitAware was awarded a $300,000 federal research grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to further develop its wearable device, called Keen. The company was also one of the first 100 startups to receive investment from Backstage Capital, a Los Angeles, California-based venture capital firm that has been making headlines for its focus on investing in minority entrepreneurs.
The Minnesota Cup started in May with 90 teams – 10 in each division. The pool of competitors was narrowed down over the course of the summer. In total, 1,661 entrepreneurs participated in this four-month-long competition – a record number, the Minnesota Cup said, and a 22 percent increase over last year.
