Growth A-List Winner: CognitiveScale

Today, 55 percent of Big Data projects fail, 70-80 percent of relevant data is trapped in silos, and 80 percent of data, including data from texts, images, notes, and social media is "dark," meaning it's not machine readable. CognitiveScale's Cognitive Clouds address these issues by augmenting human knowledge with machine intelligence, surfacing real-time insights and advice that increase productivity, improve customer satisfaction and result in cost savings.

CognitiveScale is revolutionizing the big data and analytics markets with its Cognitive Clouds, which are the next evolution of cloud computing. This new class of data interpretation and learning systems fuse structured and unstructured data to deliver relevant business insights and advice.

Leadership Insights

• Founder and CTO Matt Sanchez previously founded the research and development arm of IBM’s commercial Watson Solutions division called IBM Watson Labs. The US has granted Sanchez six patents and he is the author of 20 more.
• Chairman Manoj Saxena is the former IBM Watson General Manager who has successfully built and sold two start-ups. Other management and staff all come with proven experience from companies and institutions including IBM, Perot Systems, Motorola, Shell, MIT, Trilogy, Seton Family Healthcare, and HomeAway.

Growth A-List Winner: Neogenis Labs

1 in 3 Americans die from cardiovascular issues. And serious athletes seek clean, plant-based sources of endurance via increased circulation for fuel/oxygen delivery. The Neogenis mission is to scientifically solve circulation-related issues in health and sports. Potent, natural nitric oxide activators, Neo40 & BeetElite are the answer. Nitric oxide (N-O) is a vasodilating molecule produced in the body. Neogenis' patented formulas are proven to increase N-O production for improved blood flow.

Neogenis Labs’ patented nitric oxide nutraceuticals & nutritionals have revolutionized cardiovascular care and sports nutrition. Clinical trials for Neo40 reveal breakthrough efficacy for hypertension. Sports product, BeetElite, is at Whole Foods nationally & is used by 90+ collegiate and pro teams

Leadership Insights

• CEO and Founder Joel Kocher was President of Dell Computer during its rise to become a Fortune 500 company, and is credited with architecting their game changing direct to customer B2B distribution model.
• CSO and Founder Nathan Bryan, PhD is a renowned expert on nitric oxide. He is a scientist and faculty member at Baylor Medical Center. Bryan was recruited to the University of Texas Health Sciences Center by a Nobel Prize Laureate for the discovery of nitric oxide’s function in the body.

Growth A-List Winner: Illumitex

Like all industries, food manufacturing and agriculture face energy consumption issues and associated costs. Illumitex LED lights use half the electricity required by many legacy lighting types and have a much longer lifespan than older lighting types — two important cost-saving considerations. Our white lights help factories and food-processing plants provide safely illuminated workspaces for their employees, and our horticulture lights help indoor farmers grow more good food in more places.

Illumitex’s groundbreaking LED technology is helping innovative vertical farms around the world meet the needs of a planet that will be unable to feed its booming population by 2050. Our patented LEDs give the plants the light they need to maximize photosynthesis and produce more food more quickly.

Leadership Insights

• Dung Duong, graduate from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, is the creative technologist and chief inventor of Illumitex’s original patented ideas.
• Duong was part of Advance Technologies Group at Austin-based Luminex Corporation, where he designed, prototyped and tested the illumination, imaging optic, mechanics and industrial design of a smaller, lighter and more portable detection platform for the company’s XMap technology.

Growth A-List Winner: EPIC Provisions

Before EPIC, all protein and nutrition bars were made with processed plant based protein powders and syrups. The nutritional profiles were similar with high carbohydrates and sugar. We created a product that uses a whole food form of protein - animal muscle meat - and packaged it in a shelf stable form. Our products are naturally low in carbohydrates and sugars while being high in protein and healthy fats. As a result, EPIC is a perfect snack for athletes, diabetics, and health conscious consumers.

EPIC is a category leading company that specializes in making better for you meat based snacks. Our core product line, EPIC bar combines 100% grass fed animal protein with flavor forward spices, dried fruit, and nuts. The product is packaged in a shelf stable nutrition/protein bar format.

Leadership Insights

• Taylor Collins and Katie Forrest, husband and wife cofounders of EPIC Provisions, compete nationally in triathlons.
• Collins and Forrest also formed a commercial recycling company in 2006 and a vegan, raw food company in 2010.

Growth A-List Winner: SparkCognition

With 50 billion connected devices and cyber-physical systems expected to be online by 2020, the continuing militarization of computer security, Cloud computing shifts, and Mobile access enablement, security is more critical and complicated than ever before. Approaches such as signature-based detection, blacklists, and SIEM systems only address part of the problem. Many threats still escape detection, often despite the fact that they’ve left behind a pattern that is waiting to be found.

SparkCognition, the world's first Cognitive Security Analytics company, has developed cutting-edge Machine Learning, AI algorithms, including a proprietary Cognitive Fingerprinting technique, which provide the intelligence to uncover trends, threats, and anomalies and provide accurate remediation.

Leadership Insights

• Amir Husain, Founder & CEO, developed the technology that led to his first venture-funded startup, Kurion, while a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a prolific inventor with 10 awarded and over 40 pending US patent applications to his credit.
• The company is Chaired by Manoj Saxena, former GM of IBM Watson.