After weeks of accepting applications from Chicago startups, this year’s SeedCon Fast Pitch competition took place at the Chicago Booth Gleacher Center earlier this month. Three winners were chosen from a group of six finalists by a panel of judges that included investors from Hyde Park and New World Ventures, as well as executive members of the GoSoapBox and BrightTag teams.
This year’s top winner was Intelligent Loop, a startup helping construction and industrial operations by offering a mobile platform that streamlines tool management, fire and life safety inspections, and delivery documentation. The platform utilizes smartphone cameras to scan barcodes on tools, safety equipment, and shipments to keep track of everything in the cloud.
Interactive marketing learning platform DigitalGroundup took second place. The company has built an experiential learning tool that gives small companies a new way of training digital marketing experts without having to spend hours combing through stale learning manuals or throwing away money on test campaigns. DigitalGroundup began a private beta in November and expects to launch some time during the first quarter of next year.
Infrared Solutions came in third, showcasing its innovative and cost-effective infrared technology. Currently infrared equipment is too expensive to be reasonably used by organizations outside of the military. Backed with research from the chemistry department at the University of Chicago, Infrared Solutions hopes to bring affordable infrared technology to the masses.
Runner-ups at this year’s competition include freelance beauty network TheStylisted, online gambling website Bet ME, MedKo, catalogue and review resource for medical travelers, and Me So Far, a unique dating service focusing on gradual attraction over the immediate spark.
True to the Fast Pitch title, each of the finalists were allotted five minutes to give an overview of the company, and an additional five minutes of Q&A with the competition judges. The three top winners took home more than $100,000 in valuable business services from sponsors including Braintree, Excelerate Labs, Zipcar, twilio, and more.
Check out the Seedcon website to find out more about all of this year’s finalists.