TechOut: miEdge Takes Top Prize at NH Start-Up Competition

miEdge, a business intelligence provider for the insurance industry based in New Boston, received the $50,000 top prize for the first-ever TechOut business start-up competition. TechOut was presented by the abi Innovation Hub and the New Hampshire High Technology Council and hosted by Nanocomp Technologies in Merrimack recently.
 
The $30,000 second place prize went to Portsmouth-based Therma‐HEX, a manufacturer of high efficiency heat exchange products. The $20,000 third place prize was selected by audience vote, and awarded to Sensible Spreader as the top vote-getter. Sensible Spreader is based in Durham and is the first company in the winter road maintenance industry to integrate GPS technology with a delivery system capable of dispensing multiple aggregates in a fully‐automated manner.
 
We took our business to the next level last night," said Mark Smith, Founder and CEO of miEdge, "We not only won $50,000 that will help us grow our business and hire new people, but we now have access to some of the most talented investors, entrepreneurs and innovators in the state. TechOut opened doors for us that would have been unimaginable before.
 
The six finalists were a diverse mix of innovative, growing companies and included--in addition to miEdge <https://www.miedge.biz/home/> , Therma‐HEXX <http://www.therma-hexx.com/#!home/mainPage> , and Sensible Spreader--Screen Retriever <http://www.screenretriever.com/> , Mosaic Archive <http://www.mosaicarchive.com/> , and WakUp <http://wakupinc.com/> . The top two winners were selected by a panel of judges in advance of the event. The third place winner was selected by audience vote with results released in realtime adding an additional element of suspense.
 
"TechOut has put $100,000 of working capital into the New Hampshire Startup Ecosystem," NH High Tech Council Chair Tom Daly. "This means more companies, more jobs, and more opportunities for transact business by and between New Hampshire companies. While the three winners are the biggest beneficiaries, the long term outcome benefits many NH organizations."
 
Before the award announcement, the final six companies hosted demonstration booths for attendees to review each of their products. Then, each company had seven minutes to pitch their startup to attendees for votes.
 
This was truly a historic night and a giant leap forward for the NH startup and innovation scene," said Jamie Coughlin, CEO of the abi Innovation Hub. "While there were only three winners, all six of these early stage startups got found last night by the nearly 250 who attended. We thought outside the box and delivered a memorable event.