Editor’s note: Tom Snyder is executive director of RIoT, the regional grassroots organization supporting Internet of Things development.
RALEIGH – Local company BruVue won the RIoT Championship Belt last week as Raleigh’s strength in leading the Internet of Things economy was evident as nearly 300 people gathered to witness RIoT’s 2nd Annual Startup Pitch night.
Larry Steffann, RIoT Founder, explained to the audience: “The Internet of Things has been identified as the fourth Industrial Revolution by World Forum. There have only been three prior Industrial Revolutions in the history of mankind. You don’t want to miss this opportunity!”
RIoT set a high bar last year, with four of five participating startups successfully raising institutional capital as well as securing customers and creating jobs over the past year. “Our mission is to support disruptive technology startups across the entire data economy value chain,” Tom Snyder, Executive Director of RIoT announced. “This region has the opportunity, ecosystem and talent to lead IoT nationally and internationally.”
Prior to the pitch event, RIoT and Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster hosted a pair of panel discussions to educate the startup community about investing strategies from the perspective of the investors. Nearly a dozen corporate strategic investors and traditional private equity VC’s participated. The investors then brought their wisdom to the judging panel at the pitch event.
The five startups covered the bases from clean energy generation and water conservation, to health and safety, and perhaps the most precious resource (to the crowd), beer!
Inirv kicked-off, presenting a simple, user deployable technology to retrofit existing stoves and make them “smart.” Co-Founder, Akshita Iyer explained, “Seven people die every day from the more than 350 thousand house fires in the US, most of which are caused by cooking equipment.” Inirv’s tech automatically shuts off unattended stoves before fires start.
Luke Marshall, CEO of VitalFlo, demonstrated how their pocket-sized, connected spirometer enables asthma patients to manage chronic disease more efficiently and with less dependence on medication. The device has passed a first clinical trial and is rapidly moving to start FDA approval.
Recent NC IDEA grantee, BruVue, tackles the beer distribution industry. CEO Chris Lorkowski explained, “The state of the art in keg inventory management is for distributors to drive bar to bar, squeeze into cramped refrigerators and lift and shake kegs to estimate how empty they are.” BruVue’s simple device fits over a tap handle and tracks beers poured, sharing data intelligence to the bar owner, distributor and even the craft brewer to create efficiencies at every step in the supply chain.
Rob Creighton, CEO of Windlift presented an incredibly cool concept to harvest clean wind energy with airborne turbines. Think a cross between a drone and a windmill. The tech is particularly useful for military applications and regions far from traditional power sources.
Closing out the pitches, Mark Kovscek, Founder of Conservation Labs, described how households can recapture the $40B in lost water annually in the US by deploying a simple water tracking sensor that clamps over the water main as it enters the home. Advanced analytics, developed by the mathematician, detect leaks and usage inefficiencies.
After tense deliberation, the investors announced the winner.
Justin Rothwell, founder of ProAxion and last year’s RIoT winner, awarded the Championship Belt to Lorkowski. Beer glasses raised throughout the crowd as Chris promised the audience that BruVue will “leave no opportunity untapped.”
