Retail automation and data analytics platform Figozo won $10,000 at this mornings TechSTL Pitch Breakfast in Wood River, Ill.
Emily Hemingway, TechSTL and Shani Bennet, Figozo
“We’re working to roll out version two of our platform, so this will really help us to accelerate that timeline by probably getting an additional developer,” CEO Shani Bennett told bizblip. Adding that a seamless experience is important to his small retail customers. “We’re making merchants lives simpler… through automation. So that’s inventory management, point of sale payments — we automate all the workflow.”
The other competitors:
- Artopia – a marketplace for crypto collectibles built on the Fantom blockchain
- SAYF – an app for communities to identify and share safe spaces
- EDURain – a platform connecting college students with off-campus housing
- Euler Science – a search engine for patents and scientific literature
- Shades of Color – a marketplace for beauty products
TechSTL launched this pitch competition for BIPOC tech founders.
“We were able to bring a $10,000 prize package to the community and we felt it was going to be most effective for it to be for a single winner that could get all $10,000, and that it was going to an early stage tech startup that was run by a person of color,” TechSTL Executive Director Emily Hemingway told bizblip. “That was going to have the most impact — the kind of impact that we don’t see in a lot of pitch competitions in the area.”
