Technology is at the heart of a lot of innovation, and Washington, D.C. has plenty of it to offer. That's obvious from the sheer breadth and variety of 50 on Fire finalists in this category. Whether stopping hackers, saving energy or making immersive video games, there's no denying how innovative the region is when it comes to devising new technology.
Brian Ballard - APX Labs - Ballard founded APX Labs at first as a company building technology for the military, before building enterprise software for smart glasses. APX Labs created Skylight, the world’s most used business software for smart glasses.
Logan Soya - Aquicore - Soya is the CEO and founder of Aquicore, which provides a mix of energy data measuring hardware and analytics and management software for more than 500 hundred companies with a growing waiting list. The company has garnered close to $10 million in funding, including a $5 million investment this year.
Kiran Bhatraju - Arcadia Power - Bhataju leads Arcadia, which created the first community national community solar program, including the first such projects in the District. This year, the company raised $3.5 million in funding to help grow its solar savings service.
Neil Kataria - Basket Savings - Kataria launched local shopping app Basket this year after two years in stealth. The app compares local and online store prices to help users find the best deals and raised $5 million in investment.
David Giannini - CirrusWorks - Giannini founded bandwidth management software startup CirrusWorks, and is the co-author of the company's patents. A CIT Gap Fund portfolio company, CirrusWorks helps speed up Internet traffic and is used by several D.C.-area companies including at the MakeOffices co-working spaces.
Naj Husain - Cloudistics - Husain is the head of cloud infrastructure startup Cloudistics. The startup, which works to simplify information technology management by companies and public agencies, closed a $15 million round led by Bain Capital in June.
Zvi Band - Contactually - Band is the founder of customer management software startup Contactually, which has raised $11 million. He's also a central player in the larger D.C. tech startup community as a founder of the DC Tech Meetup and mentor to many other entrepreneurs.
Reggie Aggarwal - Cvent - Aggarwal's event management software startup Cvent had a a huge exit this year, getting acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $1.65 billion. He is now running the company under that umbrella, with expanded duties after Vista merged Cvent with Lanyon, another of Vista's acquisitions.
John Franklin - DroneShield - Franklin is a co-founder of drone detection technology startup DroneShield. This year, the company saw a major boost in revenue, and ended up going public on the Australian stock exchange, raising about $5.2 million in its IPO.
Michael Morgan - Everblume - Morgan is the founder of Everblume. The high-end hydroponics system developer offers an Internet-connected box that lets users track the growth and health of plants inside. It comes with specialized nutrients and other systems sold by the company, with adjustable lighting, temperature and even oxygen, boosting the potential of urban gardening to a new level.
Tom Davidson - EverFi - EverFi CEO Tom Davidson helped the edtech startup hit $40 million in new funding and the acquisition of compliance education startup LawRoom. The company has expanded its programs for financial and other education to 1,300 institutions and millions of students.
Dave Merkel - Expel - Merkel co-founded cybersecurity startup Expel this year along with other former FireEye and Mandiant executives. The still nascent startup has already raised $7.5 million and is poised to make a major play in the cybersecurity scene.
Chris Villar - Frontpoint - Villar has guided home security startup Frontpoint to new heights this year. The company has seen major growth for its wireless home security and home automation services. Frontpoint boasts 40% year-over-year increase in customer acquisition, doubled its headcount since 2013 and expanded offices to 100,000-square feet in Tysons.
Kate Glantz - Heartful.ly - Glantz is the founder of charitable gift registry startup Heartful.ly, which allows people to register for charities instead of more traditional gifts for events like weddings. Glantz has won a spot as a Tory Burch Foundation Fellow, won first prize at the InGENuitY 2015 Millennial Entrepreneur Pitch Contest and first place at the women's edition of Startup Weekend among others.
Michael Avon - ICX Media - In just months of launching, Michael Avon, the former Millennial Media exec, has raised a $3M seed round from some of the top angels and individuals across the country. ICX Media officially launched its platform last month.
Tanel Suurhans - ID.me - ID.me, an identification and access management platform, has raised $23M and signed a major contract to support all authentication to VA applications via Vets.gov. In the private and non-profit sector, over 500 organizations including Ford, MLB Advanced Media, Fanatics, Under Armour and Overstock.com, use ID.me to deliver special access or promotions to specific market segments.
Andrew Rosen - Interfolio, Inc. - Rosen is the current head of edtech startup Interfolio which aggregates and helps connect people looking for jobs in higher education with those looking for them. Rosen, the former co-founder of Blackboard, helped the firm raise $12 million and rapidly add new services and clients.
Giadha DeCarcer - New Frontier Data - DeCarcer is the founder of legal marijuana industry data analytics startup New Frontier Data, which recently closed a $5 million funding round. The company is planning new offices in Denver and California and has been attracting a lot of attention recently in the wake of several states legalizing the use of marijuana.
Kristian Bouw - Notion Theory - Bouw is co-founder of virtual and augmented reality startup Notion Theory. The startup has kept busy this year trying out new ways to use the technology, from casual games to teleconferencing.
Adam Vitarello and Toby Moore - Optoro - Optoro built and runs a platform for retailers to sell returned and excess inventory. Consumers can find better deals and companies can clear out space while getting at least some return on their inventory. This year, the company moved into a new, larger office to be able to fit all of the staff it needs to handle its growing customer load.
Jay Chapel - ParkMyCloud - Chapel founded cloud computing software startup ParkMyCloud to lower the cost of using Amazon Web Services. It works by letting users set up automatic scheduling, so they only pay for the time they are actually using cloud computing servers, the way your computer goes to sleep to save energy when idle. Chapel raised $1.65 million for the company earlier this year.
Rohyt Belani - PhishMe - Belani is the head of cybersecurity startup PhishMe, which offers phishing threat management solutions against malware and drive-by attacks. The company raised $42.5 million this summer to help in its quest to reduce the human error that leaves networks vulnerable to attack.
Paul McQuillan - PlanetRisk - McQuillan started off the year by merging his data analytics and risk assessment company with Bethesda-based iMapData, moving the combined company into their offices. Later this year, the company acquired another local startup, Analytic Strategies, and is poised for further growth to come.
Thomas Sanchez - Social Driver - Social Driver is on pace for its sixth year of growth, despite never taking outside funding. And outside of his work as CEO of Social Driver, Sanchez had an interesting year when some were talking him up as a candidate to take a temporary seat on the D.C. Council. While he wasn't ultimately picked for the position, his name was elevated as a notable ambassador of D.C.'s tech industry.
Dan Berger - Social Tables - Berger's hospitality software startup has had a great year, raising $13 million and surpassing more than a million events using its software. Berger is also a major player in the local tech community, acting as a mentor and offering up the company's offices for a wide range of meetups and other events.
Fitz Holladay - SoFar Sounds - Holladay arranges a series of small, secret concerts around District as a director of Sofar Sounds. He's also the founder of wego concerts, an app that connects people via their interests in live music.
AJ Jaghori - Solebrity - Jaghori wears many hats. While currently most heavily involved in his recent start-up venture, Solebrity, he has also worked to launch the HelloLoCo incubator to assist other start-up entrepreneurs, sharing his entrepreneurial experience with others as Chairman of YoloData and working with Harvard University and Indiegogo in connection with a smart water bottle technology to assist with early detection of childhood and adult illnesses.
Cherian Thomas - Spotluck - Thomas, the co-founder of Spotluck, a restaurant discovery and savings platform, is having a whirlwind year. After finding success in D.C., the startup has expanded to Philadelphia and Baltimore, and will soon launch in New York.
Jos Schaap - StayNTouch - Schaap began StayNTouch with the vision of re-inventing the hotel property management system technology, making it simple, mobile and transitioning the software to the cloud. The technology is now used to manage over 65,000 rooms in hotels around the world.
Adam Vincent - ThreatConnect - ThreatConnect, a cybersecurity company, was started in 2011 with only $50,000 in seed money from Vincent and the other founders. He's now guided the company through successful Series A and B raises. In 2016, Vincent has overseen five different product launches, facilitated numerous strategic partnerships including SAP and Deloitte, and grown the company to 140 employees.
Ryan Croft - TransitScreen - A member company of 1776, TransitScreen has raised $1.4M to date for its real-time dashboard screens that give commuters a simple interpretation of transportation options. In 2016, the startup inked major partnerships to bring its technology to companies like MakeOffices, Discover Communications and the National Institutes of Health, as well as a deal to put its technology on screens in digital jukeboxes at bars.
Lily Bengfort - UAS/Blackwater Distilling - The founder and CEO of UAS Safeflight, Bengfort is working on the technology that will make it possible to speak with and control drones using cellular technology. She also recently became the chief marketing officer for Blackwater Distilling, the oldest distillery in Maryland.
Joel Holland - VideoBlocks - Holland's stock media company now offers more than 2.5 million clips encompassing every variety of audio and visual media including 360-degree videos and virtual reality. Holland shifted from CEO to executive chairman at the beginning of the year to help focus on bringing on more enterprise clients and to travel to gather more of the footage that attracts the biggest companies to partner with his company.
Dmitry Dain and Michael W. Wellman - Virgil Security, Inc. - Dain and Wellman founded Virgil Security in 2014, ran it through the Mach37 accelerator in 2014, and were selected as one of the "most interesting, creative and successful Startup Alley exhibitors" from 2015 by TechCrunch Disrupt. Virgil raised an $800k seed round in 2015 and a $4m Series A round in 2016.
Emily Markmann - WeddingWire - Markman joined WeddingWire in August as vice president of people after years in a similar role at Clarabridge. Since joining, she's taken charge of the plans for the new, 68,000 square-foot office and maintaining and improving the company's culture as it adds 200 new employees.
Valerie Coffman - Xometry - Coffman is the CTO for Xometry, an on-demand manufacturing company that uses 3D printing to fulfill customer orders. Past Xometry customers include NASA, Raytheon, P&G, General Electric and Toyota
Justin Langseth - Zoomdata - Langseth and his data visualization have raked in the cash this year, starting with Goldman Sachs throwing $25 million his way in February. More recently, he scored an investment and partnership with In-Q-Tel, the venture capitalist facet of the country's intelligence community.
