Last week the Challenge Cup made its way to San Francisco, CA to wrap up its 16 city tour across the globe. The event was held at the well known accelerator, RocketSpace. Dozens of startups gave their one-minute pitch on stage to a panel of judges, where one company from each category would emerge as the winner and move onto the final round competition and the chance to take home the grand prize of $150,000.
In the spirit of Tech Cocktail, however, we wanted your take. We ran a poll for each category (Education, Energy, Health, and Smart Cities), to see who you thought was the hottest of the group. The readers have spoken. Below are your Reader’s Choice winners.
The Challenge Cup San Francisco’s Hottest Showcasing Startups
Education
TRAIL – TRAIL is an online, education company dedicated to bringing people their first experience with the Internet. TRAIL partners with libraries, schools, social services offices, workforce development centers and other trusted public institutions to offer its courses and features online for free. TRAIL’s platforms, JobScout and HealthScout, allow thousands of learners to become Internet savvy. With users in over 12 countries, TRAIL is on its way to becoming the “first stop” on the Internet.
Energy – (It was a tie!)
American Green Energy Systems – This new-age clean energy generator allows customers to reduce their electricity cost while also drastically reducing their carbon foot print. American Green Energy Systems uses a method of electricity amplification achieved through water-pressure electrolysis.
enACT Systems – enACT is a home-energy marketplace that allows you to plan money-saving projects, view live bids from local service providers and financiers in an area, schedule appointments with them and more. enACT partners with major utilities and is now available throughout major cities in California, soon to be expanded in other states.
Health
Regdy – Regdy is a web platform that enables visibility to all approved medical devices country-by-country.
Smart Cities (It was another tie!)
GivePulse – GivePulse is a community that matches individuals and groups to agencies that want to build memberships around service and social responsibility. In the same way Airbnb connects guests with hosts, GivePulse matches givers to causes.
Bikefrastructure – The SmartRack is an easy-to-use, high-security, short-term universal bicycle parking and reservation system. The SmartRack consists of three features: a high-security design; a data collection system; and a software application using that data to drive a real-time parking location and reservation system, theft and tampering alerts and a data analytics dashboard and management tools for strategic partners.
Congratulations to these companies! We are excited to see your growth!