Arizona Commerce Authority Announces Winners For Venture Madness 2022
PHOENIX, AZ (March 4, 2022) — The Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA), in partnership with Invest Southwest, announced five winners for Venture Madness 2022.
Arizona’s longest-running pitch competition, Venture Madness features early stage and emerging growth companies and offers participants exclusive access to the region’s most active, accredited angel investors and venture capital firms. At the event, held on March 3, companies competed in head-to-head pitches based on four industry categories.
This year’s competition featured 16 finalists drawn from 95 company applications. Following presentations, judges selected four winners, with each winning $10,000.
The winners are:
- Consumer/Business category: Frites Street, a Scottsdale company that makes pomme frites or french fries, and gourmet potato products for restaurants nationwide.
- Medical category: TapRoot Interventions & Solutions, a Phoenix digital healthcare company that collects a monthly subscription fee based on per resident per month. TapRoot’s Ella is the first AI care management platform for persons with Alzheimer’s and mental illness.
- Software as a Service (SaaS) category: Botco.ai, a Scottsdale company that offers customers a HIPAA-compliant conversational marketing and chat platform powered by AI.
- Tech category: PWR Lab in Flagstaff helps active consumers and businesses leverage Lived Experience (LX) data, sourced by wearable technologies.
In addition to these four category winners, Neon was selected as the 2022 People’s Choice award winner by Venture Madness attendees, also taking home $10,000. Neon is a digital signage software company based in Tempe that provides simple display solutions for businesses. Neon offers flexibility to transform TV screens into marketing experiences for customers.
In 2022, Venture Madness also featured a new, dedicated Expo area where Presenting Company Finalists, along with a host of other emerging growth companies, had the opportunity to showcase their products and services to attending accredited investors from across the country.
In 2022, Invest Southwest celebrates its 30th year; the event has helped raise more than $1 billion in capital funding since 1992.
Media Contact
Alyssa Tufts, Arizona Commerce Authority, [email protected]
About the Arizona Commerce Authority
The Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) is the state's leading economic development organization with a streamlined mission to grow and strengthen Arizona's economy. The ACA uses a three-pronged approach to advance the overall economy: attract, expand, create - attract out-of-state companies to establish operations in Arizona; work with existing companies to expand their business in Arizona and beyond; and help entrepreneurs create new Arizona businesses in targeted industries. For more information, please visit azcommerce.com and follow the ACA on Twitter at @azcommerce.
About Invest Southwest
Invest Southwest is the premier organization for connecting investors with the best and brightest ventures in the region and host of Arizona’s longest-running capital conference and pitch competition. In addition to providing a valuable connection point for both investors and early-stage companies preparing for growth, Invest Southwest offers unparalleled networking for investors, early-stage companies, business leaders and mentors all designed to help young companies navigate their way to success one step at a time. Its signature event, the Venture Madness Conference, is a unique capital conference and pitch competition presented in partnership with the Arizona Commerce Authority where vetted companies apply to compete against one another in a head-to-head competition to crown a champion in each category. For more information, visit InvestSouthwest.org.