Rendever wins “The TENN” finale and $25,000
After five months of intensive work to further advance their start-up, the eight teams showed the progress they made last night during “The TENN Demo Day” in Nashville.
Each team demonstrated good progress on business development, revenue generation, new investments, and other key milestones. As is always the case, however, only one of them can come-out on top.
The top prize, signifying the judges’ view of the start-up that had grown the most, went to Rendever, a company founded by individuals from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that offers a research-based virtual reality platform to improve the aging process by providing cognitive stimulation and social engagement for the elderly. The start-up won a $25,000 investment from Launch Tennessee, coordinator of “The TENN.”
The event concluded the fourth cohort for Launch Tennessee’s master accelerator program that draws its participants from the entrepreneurial network that it has helped create and support across the state.
Besides Rendever, which participated in last year’s “GIGTANK” cohort, the other seven start-ups in this year’s “The TENN” and their focus were:
- Avrio Analytics is a SaaS (software as a service) company that offers predictive marketing services to mid-market companies currently excluded from the big data market due to high cost and high risk investments. Its recently announced product is named Sibyl.
- Everly creates natural drink mixes to help people stay energized and drink more water. For every box purchased, Everly provides life-saving rehydration salts to children with waterborne disease.
- Grow Bioplastics is focused on improving food sustainability by offering farmers, greenhouse managers, and nursery operators a range of renewable, biodegradable plastic products made from lignin, a paper industry byproduct, eliminating regular plastic disposal costs.
- MomSource Network connects educated, professional women to flexible full-time, permanent part-time, job-shared and telecommuting opportunities. The company also provides professional development and networking for members of its network.
- RootsRated provides software-driven content marketing solutions for outdoor brands and destination marketers.
- SweetBio’s vision is to revolutionize healing because the world deserves to smile. Starting in dental, SweetBio specifically designed a dental membrane uniquely utilizing Manuka honey to promote healing.
- Utilize Health is a care coordination solution comprised of digital tools and concierge services provided to health plans and hospital systems to reduce care costs and improve patient health.
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, who provided welcoming remarks, praised the fact that 50 percent of the company founders were women. As he introduced the pitch portion of the program, Launch Tennessee’s John Lanahan noted the eight teams “are a true representation of innovation occurring in Tennessee.”
