Announcing This Year’s 50 on Fire Winners

Tonight, we unveiled the 50 on Fire, a collection of companies, CEOs, startups, and entrepreneurs that are driving the city’s innovation economy forward.

From Avant, one of Chicago’s four Unicorns, to Todd Connor, Executive Director of the The Bunker Labs, and from Catalyze, an incubator for makers, to Curiosity, an app for discovery, these people and businesses are heating up the city across a variety of industries.

To select the final 50, we announced the 150 nominees earlier this Fall and scheduled a photo shoot with all of the finalists. We then had over 20 judges select their top third in a handful of categories. At tonight’s event, we revealed the 50 on Fire via a high-octane, 15-minute video, which we will be posting shortly.

In the meantime, we wanted to share the winners with everyone.

Thanks to all who came out – it was an absolute blast – and congrats to the 50 on Fire and to the nominees. Enjoy…

B2B TECH Winners:

1871

Catalyze Chicago

cleverbridge

Jellyvision

Kapow

kCura

Persio

Rick Lane, CEO, Trading Technologies

Sprout Social

Stuart Frankel, CEO, Narrative Science

B2C TECH Winners:

Avant

Curiosity

Jessica Tenuta, Co-Founder and Lead Designer, Packback

Kate Drane, Senior Director of Tech Outreach, Indiegogo

LyteShot

Raise

SportsLock

EDUCATION Winners:

Edovo

Infiniteach

LEAP Innovations

Linda Darragh, Executive Director, Kellogg Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative

Literacenter

Polsky Center

ThinkCERCA

CIVIC Winners:

Amy Francetic, CEO, Clean Energy Trust

Todd Connor, Executive Director, The Bunker

Andrea Saenz, Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Public Library

BLUE 1647

Future Founders

Katie Olson, Program Director, UI LABS

Smart Chicago

INVESTMENT Winners:

Lindsay Knight, Marketing Associate, Chicago Ventures

Origin Ventures

Peter Wilkins, Managing Director, Hyde Park Angels

Shoshana Vernick, Managing Director, Sterling Partners

MARKETING & ADVERTISING Winners:

Finn Partners

KnowledgeHound

Rise Interactive

Signal

Spring Rewards

HEALTH & MEDICINE Winners:

ContextMedia

MATTER

Opternative

Sarah Doherty, Co-Founder & CTO, TeleHealthRobotics

FOOD, DINING, & DELIVERY Winners:

Julie and Tony Bombacino, Founders, Real Food Blends

Zero Percent

LIFESTYLE Winners:

BucketFeet

Red Frog Events

Sonali Lamba, Founder, Brideside

Thank you to everyone who attended, and to our 50 on Fire partners & sponsors, without whom this event would not be possible. Until next year!