Momease Solutions Inc. won the $50,000 grand prize at the 2024 Minnesota Cup on Monday evening during Twin Cities Startup Week.
Co-founders Ashley Mooneyham and Jennie Lynch also received an additional $25,000 after being awarded the Carlson Family Foundation Prize for Top Woman-led Startup. The Plymouth-based company that's developing a bra to promote breast pumping for new mothers was the division winner for the general category.
Mooneyham founded the company in 2021 after the birth of her first child. She struggled to find a breast pump solution that worked well for her while working full-time as president and director of grants at Superior Medical Experts in St. Paul. Mooneyham designed a warming and massaging pumping bra to encourage milk extraction while using a breast pump.
Momease Solutions will use the funds to design custom bra prototypes for a 100-person clinical trial in collaboration with the University of Minnesota ahead of its market launch, Lynch said.
"For too long women have had dissatisfactory experiences with the breast pump, and our team is excited to be creating a mother-designed, scientifically backed product that allows mothers to comfortably collect more breast milk in less time," Lynch said. "Ashley and I are feeling inspired and ready to get back to work, so we can get our pump-enhancing technology into mothers' hands as soon as possible."
The company has garnered more than $300,000 in the past year from grants and competitions. Momease Solutions was awarded a $288,000 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to fund research on their wearable breast pump device. That same year, Mooneyham won Hy-Vee Inc.'s Opportunity Inclusive Business Summit's pitch contest $30,000 grand prize and a$24,500 grant from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development's initiative Launch Minnesota.
This year, more than 3,200 applicants across Minnesota applied to compete in the Minnesota Cup. That was whittled down to 90 semi-finalists in May, then cut down to 27 companies, with three finalists per category in August. From the selected finalists, nine division winners were chosen, each receiving a $25,000 prize. In the competition's 20-year history, the Minnesota Cup program has served 26,000 entrepreneurs across the state and awarded $5.4 million in startup funding.
Minnesota Cup 2024 specialty prizes
- Financial services software company Mozrt was awarded the runner-up prize at this year's competition. Minneapolis-based Mozrt is a fintech company that has developed a compliance-first payment technology platform for banks and credit unions. CEO Jeff Althaus founded Mozrt, formerly WireFX, in 2019. Mozrt won the high-tech division of this year's Minnesota Cup.
- Nashke Native Games won the audience favorite prize at this year's competition. The company makes board and card games that incorporate the Ojibwe language and culture into its products. Nashke was founded by CEO Tony Drews, a descendant of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. The Minnesota Children's Museum will feature Nashke Native Games' Ginebig game in a traveling exhibit starting in May 2025.
- Loon Liquor Co. won the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation Prize for Top Startup from the Region and received a $5,000 prize. Northfield-based Loon Liquor Distillery is a grain-to-glass, organic microdistillery and cocktail room. The company, founded in 2011 by Simeon Rossi and Mark Schiller, began producing spirits in 2014.
- Revitri won the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Sustainable Chemistry Prize, receiving $10,000. Founded in 2023 by co-owners Ken Klan and Cody Bates, Revitri manufactures foamed glass beads used as fillers in plastics, concrete, coatings and any other resin system. The Willernie-based company uses post-consumer recycled curbside glass to create its beads.
- Objective Biotechnology won the MEDA/JP Morgan Chase Prize for Top BIPOC-led Startup, receiving $25,000. The company is developing research technology for biological systems. The Minneapolis-based startup was cofounded by Daryl Gohl and Dr. Suhasa Kodandaramaiah in 2023.
- Talknician won the Carlson Family Foundation Prize for Top Greater Minnesota Startup, receiving $25,000. The Minneapolis-based company creates augmented-reality software for on-the-job training for the blue-collar workforce. Brothers Andrew and John Dahlberg founded the company in 2022.
