Four Minnesota companies have been named top startups by the Startup of the Year Summit.
The eight annual Startup of the Year Summit will kick off next Monday, Nov. 16, and run until Nov. 18. It's a free, virtual event this year featuring guest speakers, pitch events and the crowning of 2020's startup of the year. Four Minnesota companies have been named Top 100 startups and will vie for the title in one of four categories. Those companies are:
- Fulcrum, a Minneapolis-based manufacturing-software startup;
- Otrafy, a St. Paul-based food-manufacturing management-software startup;
- RadWave, a St. Paul-based surgical-tech startup;
- Vonzella, a Minneapolis-based bail-insurance startup.
All four companies were named Minnesota Cup finalists in August. Vonzella came away with $50,000 from the competition by winning the Impact Ventures division and receiving the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship's Moonshot Prize, given to the company with the greatest long-term potential. Fulcrum, meanwhile, received $5,000 as the runner-up in the high-tech division.
Fulcrum recently completed its $3.1 million seed round of fundraising. The round was led by Chicago-based Motivate Ventures and had participation from local investors like Matchstick Ventures and Bread and Butter Ventures. It is using the funds to more than double its employee base, it said at the time.
Otrafy, a member of the Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator in 2019, relocated from Vancouver, British Columbia, to St. Paul at the accelerator's conclusion. It received a Launch Minnesota innovation grant from the state's Department of Employment and Economic Development in January.
All Startup of the Year contestants are also eligible to win a $20,000 investment from Established Ventures. You can register for the Startup of the Year Summit here.
