Innovation Challenge Winners

Data Center World held its 4th annual tech startup competition at our annual conference in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2025. The Innovation Challenge contest pitted data center technology startups against each other. The panel of judges included:

• Vlad Galabov, Senior Director, Enterprise Infrastructure Research, Omdia
• Raymond Parpart, Director Data Center Strategy & Operations | IT Services, The University of Chicago
• Tara Gibb, Senior Director, Data Center World

Most Disruptive Technology: Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG)

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.

Best Chance for Market Success: Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG)

The award for the technology that judges determine will be the most successful at creating revenue upside and profit for the startup company.

Best Ability to Gain Additional Capital: Apolo

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.

Most Influential Founding Team: Sapphire Technologies

The startup company that judges determine has assembled the most experienced founding backers, founding management team, and strongest investment profile.

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

• MetalSoft
• Gateview

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

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.