DETROIT – Banza, a food innovation company that uses chickpeas to make gluten-free pasta, won the $500,000 grand prize Thursday night at the sixth annual Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition. Genomenon, a life sciences company focused on personalized medicine with simplified genome interpretation software, took second place and a check for $100,000.
Other sector-specific prizes of $25,000 include:
Product and Service – LawnGuru
Information Technology – Workit Health
Alternative Energy – ArborLight
Advanced Materials – Akervall Technologies
Life Science – QTEK
Next Generation Manufacturing – Micro-LAM
Medical Device – FlexDex
Advanced Transportation – PicoSpray
People’s Choice – Neuvokas ($10,000 prize)
To date, Accelerate Michigan companies as a whole have raised more than $550 million in follow-on funding and created more than 1,000 jobs in Michigan.
“The caliber of businesses, ideas and technologies at this year’s competition highlights how Accelerate Michigan has evolved over the last five years,” said Dave Blaszkiewicz, President and CEO of Invest Detroit. “This year’s competition was great and truly encouraging as the competitors were keenly focused on contributing to Michigan’s innovation economy and culture. All of the participants are to be congratulated for demonstrating a highly competitive entrepreneurial spirit.”
In addition to the business competition, Accelerate Michigan hosted a business venture idea contest for student-led teams from throughout the state of Michigan. Students were judged on content, structure, delivery and creativity and were eligible to win $15,000 in prizes to help launch their venture. This year, CARt was awarded first place for creating a platform to provide reliable transportation for low-income, transportation poor individuals to get to and from supermarkets for fresh, healthy food options.
In addition to showcasing the 54 semifinalists, this year’s event also focused on offering Michigan entrepreneurs tools to succeed in the evolving tech economy, including a keynote address from Bill Taylor, co-founder and founding editor of Fast Company.
“Showcasing the top 50 tech companies in the state each year, and drawing in a large number of equity investors makes us proud to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem here in the state and revel in its outcomes,” said Fredrick Molnar, Vice President of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. “For the sixth year in a row, we’ve brought together the best and brightest in business and innovation. We look forward to seeing the participating companies continue to grow and do wonderful things for our state.”
The competition is made possible by grants from the New Economy Initiative and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s 21st Century Jobs Fund as well as a significant amount of corporate and community support.
