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 April 13, companies competed in head-to-head pitches.

This year’s competition featured 17 finalists selected from a pool of 88 applications. Following presentations, judges selected three winners, with the first place winning $25,000, second place winning $10,000 and third place winning $5,000.

The Venture Madness 2023 winners are:

• 1st Place: Strategikon Pharma, an end-to-end cloud-based platform to more efficiently budget, source and manage complex clinical trials.
• 2nd Place: The Polls Platform, which allows users to create, share and vote on polls, leading to organic growth, increased engagement and conversion.
• 3rd Place: Elevate, which helps candidates learn critical skills through a specialized 10-week program to land technology roles.

“Congratulations to this year’s Venture Madness winners,” said Sandra Watson, President and CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority. “Each year, we are more impressed than ever with the caliber of startups and their innovations focused on solving tomorrow’s challenges. For over a decade, the ACA has prioritized advancing our startup ecosystem and supporting our entrepreneurial community. We are proud to partner with Venture Madness and support these talented entrepreneurs.”

In 2023, Venture Madness hosted new alumni sessions with former winners and finalists including Botco.ai, Better Agency, AlgoFace and Metfora. The founders shared their stories about raising capital and scaling in Arizona. The event also provided a dedicated Expo area for the second year, 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.

Venture Madness has helped raise over $1 billion in capital funding since 1992. Previous Venture Madness winners include CampusLogic, Televeda, Homie and Qwick.