The Minnesota Cup has announced a crop of 88 semifinalist companies in nine categories to compete later this year in Minnesota's largest startup competition.
Started in 2005, the competition is held in coordination with the Univesity of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. Companies compete to win their share of over $400,000 in cash. Three finalists from each category will be announced in August and the final awards ceremony will be held on Sept. 20.
Some notable companies from this year include Shrpa, a Rochester-based travel startup that Minne Inno named one of our "Startups to Watch" for 2021 and Rochester-based Nanodropper, which recently closed on a $1.4 million seed round of venture capital.
Participants in the Minnesota Cup have gone on to raise over $400 million in venture capital. Past winners include companies like biotech company Stemonix Inc., which is the majority shareholder of public company Vyant Bio Inc. and internet of things company 75F Inc., which raised $18 million in 2019.
The semi-finalists in the Education & Training category are:
- Career Authority
- Engaged Employees
- Homeschool Boss
- LearnYour Benefits
- Manny’s Market
- Parlaty
- Proserva
- Tablmakr
- Thrive Ed Collaborative Lab School
- Tocco VR
In the Energy/Cleantech/Water category:
- 2040 Energy
- A.I.S.
- Carbonic
- CNC Concrete
- Dark Earth Technologies
- New Earth Ways
- Nucleic Sensing Systems
- Vessyll
In the Food/Ag/Beverage category:
- All Clean Food
- Baba's
- CAD Foods
- Canomiks
- Clean Chickens and Co.
- EarthScout, GBC
- Mostly Made
- Pure Tap Inc.
- Spice Kitchen
- Twin Cities Berry Co.
In the General category:
- Ahh
- Beatrice Health
- Bright Planet Pet
- Bryce Canyon Design
- Saving Mate
- HipStar
- Mom Ahh
- REMastered Sleep
- Sploosha
- Wicked Rags
In the High Tech category:
- Annum
- Click360 Inc.
- ControlBright, Inc.
- hoodo
- IntelliU
- ProsperStack
- SG Devices
- Shrpa
- Touca
- VoiceIt
In the Impact Ventures category:
- Black Tech Talent
- Cocreatex Inc.
- Forever Ware
- GenEQTY
- Healthy Share GBC
- Lights On! A Program of MicroGrants
- Rethink Tailoring & Sewing Lounge
- Seasoned Specialty Foods
- Seraph 7 Studios
- YardHomes MN
In the LifeScience/Health IT category:
- Chanl Health
- CoraVie Medical
- CT Resources Inc.
- Fistula Solution Corp.
- Laplace Interventional Inc.
- Luminary Therapeutics
- MarPam Pharma
- North Star Therapeutics
- Rion
- SoleView
In the Student category:
- Auris AI
- Cognitivae
- Gro-W-all
- Hearing Glasses
- Nanodropper
- Renter Chat
- Telo
- Terramodern
- Unio
- Vibrance Biomedical
In the Youth category:
- Byt
- CASP Technologies
- Cube-Ex
- Lightbulb Tutors
- NoWayWaste
- Rebel 19
- ShowCase Waves
- Sock Munch
- TechnoKrats
- Zohra Beauty
You can go here for more information about each company.
