HabitAware, a Minneapolis company that makes a bracelet to help people control habits and tics such as pulling hair and sucking thumbs, won the $50,000 grand prize the 14th annual Minnesota Cup business competition Monday.
Carrot Health, a software firm in Minneapolis, was the winner of the Life Science/Health IT division and $20,000 prize. Carrot Health, which combines social and behavioral data with predictive modeling for institutional clients, helps insurers and other clients predict health problems with target populations.
The awards to HabitAware and Carrot Health are in addition to $30,000 cash prizes for each of the nine divisional winners.
The evening announcement climaxed the first day of Twin Cities Startup Week, a weeklong series of demonstrations, workshops and networking events that emerged in 2014 from activities around the Minnesota Cup.
The Startup Week has, in turn, spawned similar conferences around food and health innovations in the metro area this week.
A record 1,660 Minnesota creators and innovators participated in this year's competition. Nearly half the entering teams included women; 27 percent included members of color and 8 percent included veterans.
"Some come to the starting line with an operating business ready to become the best version of itself," said Jessica Berg, executive director of the Minnesota Cup competition. "Others use the Minnesota Cup process and the guidance and advice of our extraordinary mentors to create the first viable shape their entrepreneurial dreams will take."
HabitAware got its start two years ago when Aneela Idnani Kumar and her husband, Sameer, set out to use smart-wearable technology to treat an impulse-control disorder known as trichotillomania that involves pulling out one's hair. She has had "trich" for more than 20 years and tells her story on the company's website.
