After close to a month of competition and more than 3,500 votes, Traive has claimed the title of Tech Madness champion.
The St. Paul-based ag-tech startup narrowly beat out phData, winning by just 14 votes. Traive entered Tech Madness as the No. 15 seed and beat out larger Twin Cities tech businesses like NimbeLink and HomeSpotter.
Founded in 2018, Traive is a digital lending platform focused on helping farmers get the capital they need to invest in their business, including introducing technology to help them become more efficient and productive.
Traive has partnered with large agribusinesses, getting access to data that provides an inside look at farmer behavior and loan information. Using that data, Traive is building financial models that will allow it to assess farmers’ risks and connect them with lenders.
After participating in the inaugural Techstars Farm to Fork class in 2018, Traive raised $1.3 million from a group of investors that included The Syndicate Fund, a Twin Cities firm.
We started this competition with a bracket of 16 teams and one question: Which startups would you invest in? Through Tech Madness we hoped to create a friendly competition that highlighted some of the exciting tech companies that made up Minnesota’s startup scene.
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Congratulations to all 16 companies that participated! Thank you to everyone for another great year of Tech Madness!
