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Innovation Challenge 2025

Data Center World's 4th annual tech startup competition will occur at our annual conference in Washington, D.C., the week of April 14, 2025. The Innovation Challenge pits data center technology startups against each other. Interested in competing? The submission window is now open. Learn more

2024 Innovation Challenge Winners Announced!

Data Center World held its 3rd annual tech startup competition at our annual conference in Washington, D.C., on April 17, 2024. The Innovation Challenge contest pitted data center technology technology startups against each other. The panel of judges included:

  • Josh Claman, Chief Executive Officer, Accelsius
  • Vlad Galabov, Director, Cloud and Data Center Research, Omdia
  • Ali Fenn, President, Lancium

And the 2024 Winners are...

Prize Categories

Most Disruptive Technology – The award for the technology that the judges determine to have the best opportunity to create short-term positive market, sales, or customer service disruption among existing data center technologies in its vertical 

And the winner is . . .Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG)

Best Chance for Market Success – The award for the technology that judges determine will be the most successful at creating revenue upside and profit for the startup company 
And the winner is . . . Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG)

Best Ability to Gain Additional Capital – The award for the startup company that judges determine is sufficiently structured, has the most attractive data center technology, and has the most connected and well-run management team to be able to raise additional capital to grow the company 

And the winner is . . . APOLO

Most Influential Founding Team – The startup company that judges determine has assembled the most experienced founding backers, founding management team, and strongest investment profile 

And the winner is . . . SAPPHIRE TECHNOLOGY

We thank all Innovation Challenge participants for their great presentations and effort.
Additional finalists included:

  • MetalSoft
  • Gateview

Past Innovation Challenge Winners

2023 Winners

Most Disruptive Technology 

ECL, a data center solution company in the United States that is fully sustainable with zero impact on the environment.

Best Chance for Market Success

ECL, a data center solution company in the United States that is fully sustainable with zero impact on the environment.

Best Ability to Gain Additional Capital

Neu.ro, provides management and automation of the infrastructure and processes for successful ML development at scale.

Most Influential Founding Team 

Ventana Micro Systems, revolutionizes the processor market by offering high-performance, extensible and secure compute chiplets based on RISC-V's open architecture.

We thank all Innovation Challenge participants for their great presentations and effort. Additional finalists included:

  • Net-Zero Edge (NZE), driving innovation in the data center industry by harnessing the power of the ocean to create sustainable, scalable, and secure solutions for a data-driven world.
  • DHK Storage, Inc., dba ChiliRack, precision air cooling for data centers, provides vastly superior server cooling and big cooling cost savings, delivering cold air directly into the rack. 

The finalists presented a ten minute “elevator pitch” on the Data Center Live Stage and answered questions from the judges.

The Data Center Innovation Challenge was judged by a panel of industry thought leaders representing the market research firm Omdia, the investment community, and a former Innovation Challenge winner. The judges included: 

  • Moises Levy, Senior Principal Analyst, Omdia
  • Mark Litke, Chief Commercial Officer with Cumulus Digital Systems,
  • Don Anderson, Senior Managing Director, The Blackstone Group

2022 Winners

Most Disruptive Technology 

GRAID Technology, the world's first NVMe RAID to eliminate the traditional RAID bottleneck and unlock the full potential of enterprise SSD performance.

Best Chance for Market Success 
Alcatraz AI, provides an autonomous access control experience by leveraging the unique power of the human face.

Best Ability to Gain Additional Capital 
GRAID Technology, the world's first NVMe RAID to eliminate the traditional RAID bottleneck and unlock the full potential of enterprise SSD performance.

Most Influential Founding Team 
Cumulus Digital Systems, Inc.,digitalizing mission-critical manual work in maintenance and construction. 

We thank all Innovation Challenge participants for their great presentations and effort. Additional finalists included:

  • Round World Business Group, supports HotSite®, an array of specialized aluminum gantry cranes and beams that can protect IT equipment. 
  • IQS, supports Quick Rack, a patented device that assists with installing hardware within a server/network rack. 

The finalists presented a ten minute “elevator pitch” on the Data Center Live Stage and answered questions from the judges.

The Data Center Innovation Challenge will be judged by a panel of industry thought leaders representing the market research firm Omdia, the investment community, and a former Innovation Challenge winner. The judges include: 

  • Andrea Munoz, Senior Vice President, Operations & Customer Success, CyrusOne
  • Moises Levy, PhD, Principal Analyst, Data Center Physical Infrastructure, Omdia
  • Michael Maniscalco, EVP of Technology, Applied Blockchain Inc.

Data Center Manager of the Year 2025

Do you know an exceptional leader in the data center organization? Someone who exemplifies all the qualities of a trailblazer in a mission critical environment, a person that is dedicated to ensuring uptime, team building, sustainability, and innovation? Someone who is always striving to work smarter, plan for the future, and advance their organization? Tell us about them! And feel free to nominate yourself! Learn more.