AgIntel walked away with top honors at the first Florida Innovation Pitch Competition held during the Florida Chamber Foundation’s Technology & Innovation Summit in Tampa.
Matt Donovan, CEO and co-founder of the company, pitched AgIntel’s AI-powered platform that helps farmers get large-scale crop insights to improve yields and reduce waste. The technology already has enterprise contracts in place and reports gross margins topping 90%.
“We built our company in Florida, for Florida’s needs, but also to be able to export to the world,” Donovan said after the win.
The competition brought together five finalists representing some of the state’s most promising startups. Each had a few minutes to make their case before a panel of judges that included leaders from Florida Venture Forum, ARK Invest, DeepWork Capital, Tampa Bay Wave, eMerge Americas and the Florida Opportunity Fund. The event was emceed by Dr. Keith Richards of the Florida Chamber Foundation.
In addition to AgIntel, other pitch competition finalists included:
— ZoraSafe, founded by Catherine Karow, which creates cybersecurity solutions to protect vulnerable users from scams, fraud, and other online threats.
— VeriChem, founded by CEO Jay Letendre, which develops forensic technology to improve drug detection and support law enforcement in combating the spread of synthetic drugs.
— Baseline Bio, founded by CEO Jimmy Lee, which is pursuing breakthrough approaches that could change the way Type 1 diabetes is treated.
— Energy to Power Solutions (E2P), led by President Dr. Christopher Rey, which designs and installs advanced superconducting magnets and cryogenic systems to address expensive and complex defense challenges.
As the winner, AgIntel earns a spot at the 2026 Florida Venture Capital Conference and entry into eMerge Americas’ Global Startup Accelerator + Showcase, opening doors to investors and mentors.
The Chamber also announced a follow-up webinar open to all Summit participants and Florida business leaders. The webinar is intended to “continue the forward movement on advancing Florida’s global leadership in tech and innovation.” Registration is open online.
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