The 2022 43North business plan competition finals will be held on Oct. 20 at Shea's.

The 2022 43North startup competition finals on Thursday are going to look a little different than in years past. 

The pitch contest will still be held at Shea's Performing Arts Center and feature innovative up-and-coming startups from around the globe competing to be part of the eighth cohort of 43North companies. 

But instead of one grand prize winner that will receive a $1 million investment, five promising companies will get $1 million from the Buffalo startup accelerator. 

43North officials decided that offering fewer, but bigger, prizes would keep the organization competitive in a growing venture capital landscape. This year, they focused on companies that would be a good fit for Western New York – companies that will thrive here – as each winner must base their operations in Buffalo for at least a year in exchange for the $1 million investment and support services from 43North.

43North officials decided this spring to offer fewer but larger prizes in its business startup competition – and they said the move brought it more applicants of a higher quality.

Fifteen startups – two local, one international and several from some of the country's largest startup hubs – will make pitches to a panel of 30 judges Wednesday at Seneca One tower. The next night, eight will take to the Shea's stage and, in front of a live audience in a packed theater, try to convince five different judges why their company deserves $1 million. 

Agapé is a relationship wellness company. Through a smartphone app, couples can answer personalized questions to spark meaningful conversations and increase relationship happiness and fulfilment.  

The company's founder, Khadesha Okwudili, came up with the idea for the app after she was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition. Her boyfriend, now husband, visited her every day in the hospital and the couple had deep conversations. She wanted to create something to facilitate similar conversations among couples. 

Locally, the Rochester company has raised $200,000 from venture development organization Launch NY.

A team of doctors, nurses and engineers at AMPAworks built a camera that uses computer vision artificial intelligence to track inventory for pharmacies, medical device companies, surgery centers, clinics and hospitals.

CEO Bianca Gonzalez previously worked as a surgical nurse practitioner and saw how time consuming it is for health care workers to take inventory of medications and the problems that arise when inventory is missing. 

AMPAworks provides real-time data that could save the average hospital $10 million annually by automating manual inventory enumeration tasks, the company says. 

In 2019, the startup participated in the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator for health care companies and received a $100,000 investment.

Aravenda is software for resale and consignment businesses, selling everything from sneakers and designer handbags to antique furniture. 

The resale market is the fastest growing retail segment, expected to reach $53 billion by 2023. Aravenda founder and CEO Carolyn Thompson has said the resale industry is growing 11 times faster than traditional retail. 

The company was founded in 2018 and was formerly known as Resale Global. 

CAHill TECH is a local startup company that has an app called aQuiRe, which is used by construction companies to help train workers and improve safety. CEO Carley Hill shows the app's home screen.

Through its smartphone app aQuiRe, CAHill TECH provides skills and safety training for construction workers and reportable metrics for employers.

Founder Carley Hill is one of only a few women leaders in the construction industry. She is working to make her app as accessible as possible, especially to those in marginalized communities.

The startup recently closed a $1 million investment round, with local investors Launch NY and the Western New York Impact Fund contributing. CAHill TECH is using that capital to expand and hire more employees in Western New York. 

The startup is also part of the Techstars Iowa 2022 accelerator class.

Delee's patent-pending technology can isolate and analyze tumor cells from a patient's blood for earlier cancer detection. 

The company plans to start selling its technology as a research-only device by the end of 2022 and already has preorders worth more than $2.5 million, according to the company's crowdfunding campaign. 

Delee's technology is not FDA approved yet. The company will begin the approval process during the second quarter of 2023. If approved, Delee's technology then can be used on patients in hospitals and laboratories. 

The startup has raised more than $2.6 million since 2017 and has participated in Y Combinator and StartX, two prestigious startup accelerators.

Lilu created the first automated breast massage pumping bra that helps mothers pump more milk and alleviates clogged milk ducts. 

Founder Adriana Vazquez she was inspired to create the device after a friend returned to work after having a child.

"It was the first time I saw up close what it was like to be a working mother," she told TechCrunch in 2017. "It struck me how little I knew about the challenges that working moms face."

Last year, a Mashable writer tried the bra and gave it a score of 4.25 out of 5, commenting it's "loud, but effective."

The field includes one local startup, one company from Rochester and one international company. Others are from some of the country's largest startup hubs, like New York, Chicago and Austin.

M Aerospace has developed one of the first affordable, large-scale 3D metal printers that can combine several materials on a single print.

The company's technology will address production challenges across the aerospace, health care and automotive industries and it already has prestigious customers including Audi, General Motors, Honeywell, Kenworth and Gulfstream, according to M Aerospace's crowdfunding website. 

The startup delivered two metal 3D printers during the second quarter of 2022 and had five additional orders. M Aerospace wrote on its crowdfunding website that it is on target to hit $1 million in revenue by the end of this year. 

Magpie's platform uses artificial intelligence to help individuals, dealers and wealth managers digitize, catalogue and strategize collectible assets, such as baseball cards.

Founder Kathryn Harrison said she started the company because she experienced the same frustration many collectors face when she started cataloging her father's collectibles. 

"When I started cataloging my father's collection, I soon found that it takes a tremendous amount of time to learn the true value of your collectibles," Harrison said. "Many collectors only receive 10 or 20 cents on the dollar if assets are lost due to fire, flood, or unforeseen events. Together with other passionate collectors, Magpie set out to change that situation." 

After 15 years in the entertainment industry, Alexandria Porter created Mod Tech Labs in 2020 to fill a need for realistic content. The startup uses machine learning to create 3D content at scale by digitizing the real world using photos.

Users can take a picture with a camera or the Mod smartphone app, upload it, and get a 3D file to download. The company's technology has 14,000 downloads and 3,000 active users, according to Mod's crowdfunding campaign. 

Traditional 3D content creation requires highly skilled specialists, complex software and is very slow. Mod Tech Labs' technology is 99% faster than manual conversion to 3D, the company wrote on its crowdfunding site. 

The Cheektowaga-based company, which makes artisan crackers and seeds, proved that a startup doesn't necessarily have to be a high-tech wonder to win the $1 million grand prize in the 43North competition.

Otrafy is an artificial intelligence-powered supplier management software that ensures supplier compliance and manages risks. 

"Otrafy doesn't just digitize papers, we collect identifiable data," Founder Nhat Nguyen said on the company website. "We know production practices, quality issues, all are valuable information to tell manufacturers if the supplier is reliable to work with. And building a resilient supply chain is what we all care about."

The company won Techfest Vietnam in 2021, and its customers include dairy company Kemps, sneaker company Spira and Olipop, a healthier soda maker. 

Phood is a platform that lets college students use their dining dollars on meal delivery services, such as DoorDash, groceries and convenience items and at local restaurants.

In September 2021, the company announced a partnership with digital banking company Discover. Students receive a prepaid Discover card loaded with their dining dollars.

The program launched at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Mont., and Radford University in Radford, Va.

The company, founded by Alex Parmley, was part of the Techstars NYC 2021 class.

Seshie makes it easy for teams to book live, virtual modern-day workshops, called seshies, based on employee data and insights.

Seshie's goal is to provide engaging team-building experiences to increase employee morale and build company culture.

The company's catalog of seshies include workshops on goal setting, Black History Month trivia and racial equity.  

Tampon Tribe makes organic, plastic-free period products, including pads, tampons, menstrual cups and underwear. 

Founders Jennifer Edan and Gabriela Alves created the company to help their customers "protect their bodies and the planet." 

Seventy percent of Tampon Tribe's revenue comes from subscriptions and multiyear contracts to provide period products to companies such as Google, Amazon, Saks, Four Seasons and Pixar, according to the company's crowdfunding website.

Tampon Tribe's revenue has increased 2,000% in four years, according to the crowdfunding campaign. The company is working to expand its product offerings and it is developing a line of organic reusable pads and organic ultra-thin pads.  

The latest changes don't alter the size of 43North's prize pool. It just narrows it to fewer recipients. Here's how the recent change could impact some key components of 43North's mission. 

Co-founders Alborz Bozorgi and Ellenor McIntosh got the idea to create a flushable, biodegradable wet wipe after they learned one of their friends had clogged their toilet three times in a one year from flushing wipes.

After five years of research, they created Twipes – flushable, biodegradable wipes that take three hours to break down in water and seven days to break down in a landfill – in 2019. 

In 2020, McIntosh was named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in Europe. 

TYBR Health makes a surgical spray that protects tissues while they heal to improve outcomes after surgery. 

TYBR Health was formed out of the Texas Medical Center Biodesign fellowship. Over the course of one year, the team identified a clinical problem, created a solution, and started a company.

Not only does the spray prevent scarring, but it helps accelerate tissue regeneration.

"Instead of getting a scar in response, you actually get a response that is functionally repaired and closer to the normal anatomy that it was before," co-founder Tim Keane said in an article about the company by Texas Medical Center.

Must-read local business coverage that exposes the trends, connects the dots and contextualizes the impact to Buffalo's economy.

I cover technology and startups for The Buffalo News. A North Tonawanda native, I returned to Buffalo in January 2022 after five years of reporting in Central New York and Wisconsin.

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The 43North competition is returning after a one-year hiatus. In accordance with Shea's rules, everyone who attends must be fully vaccinated.

The 2022 43North business plan competition finals will be held on Oct. 20 at Shea's.

CAHill TECH is a local startup company that has an app called aQuiRe, which is used by construction companies to help train workers and improve safety. CEO Carley Hill shows the app's home screen.

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