Virtual Minnesota Cup's big winner: Blue Cube Bio

The Minnesota Cup named its winners on Tuesday in what the startup competition's co-founder and entrepreneur Scott Litman described as a tight contest.

The Minnesota Cup, started in 2005, is Minnesota's largest startup competition. It was held this year, as in the past, at the University of Minnesota's McNamara Alumni Center. This year, however, only event hosts and entrepreneurs were in the room; the audience had to tune in via livestream.

Of the nine division winners (each of which received a $30,000 prize), six were considered by the tournament's judges as possible Grand Prize winners, Litman said. Moreover, the participants had broad appeal, Litman said.

"This year, more than any other, the ideas were focused on how to change the world and improve the society around us," he said.

The grand prize winner was Blue Cube Bio, a Minneapolis-based company that creates a cryogenic storage solution for cell therapy companies. It received a $50,000 award. The runner-up was CounterFlow Technologies, which builds a newly designed spray nozzle for industries like agriculture and food; CounterFlow received a prized of $20,000.

Other companies also received cash prizes. Harvest Nation, a Tower-based startup that sells boxes of fresh produces on a subscription basis, received a $25,000 prize from the Carlson Family Foundation for being the best veteran-led startup. Pikup, an app that allows groups to coordinate food pickup orders, received a $25,000 prize from MEDA and JP Morgan Chase, and was named the competition's best startup with a founder of color.

Vonzella, a Minneapolis-based for-profit bail cost-sharing program, received the $20,000 Moonshot Prize from the Carlson School's Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship, while Rochester-based Shrpa, a crowd-sourced travel guide, received $10,000 from the state's Department of Employment and Economic Development as the best business based in Greater Minnesota.

Busy Baby, an Oronoco, Minn.-based startup that makes placemats teething toys for babies, received $5,000 from the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation for being the best startup from southern Minnesota, as well as $25,000 from the Carlson Family Foundation for being the competition's best woman-led startup.

The Minnesota Cup division winners are, by division: