After a great summer, the BETA Cohort roars back to life with a brand new group of amazing Minnesota startups.
Learn more about the 14 startups of this season's Cohort, and be sure to give them a shout out on LinkedIn!
Fall 2025 BETA Cohort
Aigencea
Aigencea (AY-jen-see) was founded by KRUTSCH Design founder & runner Ken Krutsch. Ken's decades of digital agency experience is coupled with a desire to help others in the agency and Enterprise digital space to surf ahead of the wave rather than being drowned by it.
At Aigencea, our mission is to empower digital agencies with intelligent, intuitive AI tools and processes that amplify strategic insight, elevate user understanding, and accelerate decision-making. We fuse human curiosity with artificial intelligence to unlock clarity, foster innovation, and drive purposeful impact in every engagement.
Alure LLC
Alure LLC is developing a unique mesh-infused technology and data driven solution to track both Japanese beetle infestations and eliminate them passively after they land on our device. This bait and kill strategy has the potential to outcompete standard bait and bag traps in terms of passivity, longevity, and efficacy. We are a team of recent UMN graduate entrepreneurs, engineers, and marketers inspired by the story of our cofounder's plum trees, which have been decimated by this pesky pest year after year.
Dorie
Dorie is a data aggregation and analytics platform designed specifically for small to mid-sized nonprofits. Dorie integrates data from donation platforms, CRMs, and marketing tools to uncover actionable insights that help organizations raise more money and increase donor retention. We’re transforming fragmented nonprofit data into clear, AI-powered guidance for fundraising success.
Firefly Immersive
Firefly Immersive is a Minnesota-based healthtech company transforming behavioral health through immersive, evidence-based VR programs. Our flagship platform, The Sanctuary, delivers stress resilience and mental wellness experiences that can be deployed in community spaces, workplaces, homes, and healthcare settings. Inspired by proven therapeutic approaches such as cognitive reframing, emotional regulation, ACT, CBT, and mindfulness, our programs help users build resilience, shift unhelpful thinking patterns, and respond more flexibly to stress. Designed for scalability, modularity, and seamless integration, the platform is positioned to expand into tailored applications that address a wide range of wellness and health needs over time.
Gaming Change
Gaming Change offers a scientific methodology and tools for companies to get the most value out of every dollar they spend on compensation to drive the behaviors the business needs. By "gamifying" the design of incentives, we assess the impact on the company's existing incentives on behaviors and profit (e.g., via our digital, Gaming Compensation Change tool);collect input from employees in novel ways to understand what motivates them (essentially gamified employee "surveys");and empower leadership to understand how they're steering behavior today and the different levers available, and experiment with ("war game") changes, including predicting how employees will respond.
OneCard
OneCard helps people manage several credit cards like one. Our wallet picks the best credit card to maximize rewards based on where you're purchasing with a simple double click. It even applies to the best credit cards for you, and helps to stay debt-free.
One of the founders has helped a Fortune 500 company expand products, while the other launched the largest number of features in a leading AI startup.
Remarket Space
Remarket Space is a marketplace that connects dealers' sub-$10k trade-in vehicles directly with consumers. We handle inspection, listing, delivery, and title transfer, enabling dealers to earn $500-2,000+ more per vehicle than sending to auction while saving buyers $2,500 versus traditional used car lots. Since launching our platform in November 2024, we've sold over 2,000 vehicles, generating $2.5M in GMV, and are cashflow positive with 7 full-time employees.
SentryDx
SentryDx detects cancer DNA in a blood sample and solved a 30-year technical problem that was limiting cancer diagnostics. This technology represents a leap forward with dramatically increased accuracy >200x and reduced amount of sequencing >100x. Our technology is a foundation improvement that complements current approaches and can be incorporated into existing workflows. Applications include drug development, cancer screening, and treatment response/recurrence monitoring.
Service In Sync
PI’m a solo founder who built a B2B SaaS platform called Service In Sync to run my own field service business after finding that existing software lacked key tools I needed to grow. Most platforms were either too basic, too bloated, or failed to handle real-world needs like smart scheduling, team payroll, or quoting that actually converts. I built everything I wished those tools had, and after seeing how much it helped my own business, I made it available to others. Now I’m focused on helping other field service businesses grow with software that actually works for them.
Submitta
We’re building an AI-powered tool that takes the raw transcripts from Zoom/Teams medical device usability study sessions and automatically generates a draft usability report in the FDA’s required format. All the engineer has to do is review, tweak, and submit. For context - without detailed and accurate usability reports, the FDA does not approve medical devices for commercialization.
This means:
• Faster FDA submissions
• More studies completed per year for a product
• Faster product rollout and market share for companies
• Engineers can focus on what matters and support product development instead of drafting long reports
The Commons
The Commons™ addresses the mental health and learning crisis fueled by cellphone disruptions in schools. Students lose 270 learning-hours yearly from cellphone use, that's one month of class time - gone. The Commons™ proprietary technology seamlessly blocks distraction technology while academic and medical tools remain functional. At $15/student/year, it’s a scalable, low-friction alternative to the competition. We’re patent pending, launching pilots with >3,000 students this fall, and raising $1.5M on a SAFE to scale and capture a $750M+ mandated market.
Vivarent LLC
Vivarent is a peer-to-peer and business-to-business rental marketplace that provides affordable, temporary access to high-value, underused items - eliminating the need for ownership. From kayaks and power tools to cameras and more, Vivarent connects people who need items with those who own them. Our platform offers a smooth, secure, and user-friendly experience for both renters and lenders. Whether for adventure, work, or special occasions, Vivarent helps you get what you need, when you need it.
ZenBrix Inc.
ZenBrix is an AI-powered SaaS platform built to streamline project management for contractors, remodelers, and designers. Founded by Belkis Cruz, a first-generation Latina and experienced design-build entrepreneur, ZenBrix eliminates the need for multiple expensive tools by combining estimating, material selections, subcontractor tracking, and client communication into one intuitive platform. Our solution is designed by builders, for builders — helping small firms operate with the efficiency of enterprise-level systems. We’re on a mission to make construction smarter, more profitable, and more accessible for the businesses that actually build America.
Zwing
Zwing is a mobile app that helps amateur golfers upgrade their swing by connecting them with PGA-certified coaches for remote swing analysis and feedback. Zwing was founded by two former college golfers who became frustrated with how hard it was to book and pay for a lesson when you are living in a big city. After an in-depth customer discovery process involving conversations with 100+ players and 80+ coaches, we decided to solve the pain points of scheduling hassles and high costs associated with taking a lesson. We spent the past few months developing our V1 mobile application (now live!) and lining up partner golf facilities to launch our product.
