2022 Render Competition Winners

Announcing The Eight 2022 Render Competition Winners

“We were so impressed with the quality of applications we received this year. We also wouldn’t be able to put on this program without our generous sponsors and our expert judges. We are confident that this cohort will help our local startup ecosystem continue to flourish and we look forward to seeing how each company puts these funds to use.” - Marigrace Ragsdale, Venture Platform Manager 

On Thursday, Sept. 22, during the Render Competition Pitch Event at Lynn Family Stadium, the eight winners were awarded an investment of $100,000. While three winners were local to Greater Louisville, the remaining five winners will now relocate their headquarters to the area. 

This year’s eight winners are Connect, Dreami, Fanluv, Gamerabble, Prepsharp, SenseGrass, Smoove Creations, and TitleWise.

• Connect (Louisville, KY): Connect serves hyper-focused digital ad placements. We associate geographic locations to digital devices, driving your marketing message to targeted individuals’ laptops, smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
  
  
• Dreami (Redwood City, CA): Despite its monumental impact on career progression, access to mentorship is not equitable and is locked behind exclusive professional networks or luck. Dreami is breaking down the barriers to mentorship by providing a delightfully beautiful and scalable platform.

• Fanluv (Los Angeles, CA): FANLUV is a blockchain based social network that enables its users to monetize their content and earn revenue through FANLUV token. 
• Gamerabble (Tampa, FL): Gamerabble is the first of its kind, gamified esports coaching and training platform for gamers who want to improve in a fun, toxicity-free, and inclusive space where you can learn from your peers while getting rewards that will make improving more enjoyable than ever before.
• Prepsharp (Louisville, KY): PrepSharp is a tutor-centered SaaS solution intended to propel the typical, paper-and-pencil tutoring scenario into the 21st Century.
• SenseGrass (Fremont, CA): Sensegrass is a soil intelligence platform for fertilizer management. We use a combination of AI-based recommendations and soil sensors to deliver real-time soil health analyses and targeted nutrient management. We help farmers and companies reduce chemical fertilizer use, increase crop yields, and grow more sustainably.
• Smoove Creations (Highland Heights, KY): Smoove Creations gives corporations the ability to create customizable footwear in minutes. Using Smoove Creations 3D design studio, customers select their shoe, upload custom artwork, create color schemes, and add custom text.
• TitleWise (Clarksville, IN): TitleWise offers a powerful web-based tool for creating digital reports and databases specifically designed for real estate title abstractors. Completely customizable to meet any formatting needs, researchers produce typed reports in the field, on-the-go, remotely.

The Render Competition makes funding more accessible to early-stage startups in the Greater Louisville region, while also helping attract new entrepreneurs to the area. Over 230 applicants were evaluated by 50+ volunteer judges and the winners were selected by a final panel including: Clint Kelly (Square), Elizabeth Rounsavall (Rounsavall Investments), Mario Mazzone (Keyhorse Capital), Katie Blakeley (PetFirst/Metlife), and Patrick Henshaw (Managing Director, Render Capital). The 2022 Render Competition was made possible with support from program sponsors Access Ventures, Endeavor, Louisville Forward, techstars Startup Week Louisville, Venture First, Monroe Shine, Amplify Louisville, UofL Health Equity Innovation Hub, Elevate Ventures, and GLI.