This is it, the final round of DC Inno Madness.
Sixteen companies came together to represent Greater Washington's wide variety of startups. Cybersecurity firms were pitted against multicultural puzzle makers, AI-powered health care businesses duked it out with real estate players building modular homes. And now it all comes down to a dating app that caters to Black women versus a cloud-focused federal cybersecurity compliance startup.
All of your votes helped whittle down these rounds as you now look to answer one question for the final time: Which of these companies would you put your dollars behind, if given the chance?
Round 3 recap
The third round saw at least one underdog remain in the fight. No. 14 seed Bladestack prevailed over No. 7 Happied.
Experienced Inno Madness competitor, No. 9 seed CarpeDM punched its ticket to the final round in a win over No. 12 seed Escalate.
Which company will take home the crown in this last round?
Check out the bracket below to see the Round 4 matchups, and click to vote.
The rulebook
Once again, each individual gets one vote per round. Be sure to share the bracket with your networks and mark your calendars so you can join us for the ride. And you can follow it all in our twice-weekly newsletter, The Beat (you can sign up for free).
The final round of voting begins now and continues for one week, ending 5 a.m. on April 17, when we will crown our ultimate DC Inno Madness winner.
Meet the participants below and read the contest rules here.
Game time!
Alright, it's time now to check out the bracket below of our four remaining contenders to see the final matchup and to cast your vote below. And if you need a refresher of the remaining companies, see our descriptions below before starting to vote.
Final matchup
CarpeDM: This is a D.C.-born dating app, a cohort member of the Techstars accelerator program and one of the Washington Business Journal's Inno on Fire firms, that provides vetted, hand-curated relationship matches for Black women. (Seed: No. 9)
Bladestack: This Tysons cybersecurity firm helps companies overcome their cloud security and federal cybersecurity compliance issues while committing heavily to a samurai motif. (Seed: No. 14)
