On Wednesday evening, the 20th cohort of the RIoT Accelerator Program presented to the public at its “Founder Showcase & Pitch Night” in Wilson, North Carolina.
Dubbed “RAP XXII,” this cohort marked a significant milestone in that it was the first to complete the accelerator program since RIoT Labs and NC IDEA Foundation formally established a partnership this past February. As RIoT Labs Director of Strategy Greg Dunko said when RAP XXII was first unveiled, “This cohort represents more than just another class of startups—it reflects a shared commitment to advancing innovation and expanding opportunity across our region.”
That commitment manifested in a class of 10 startups from across industries and, indeed, the state of North Carolina. Eight of these startups presented at Wednesday evening’s culminating event—with an audience favorite vote, a judges’ selection, a quirky one-of-a-kind trophy, and some unexpected financial boosts (courtesy of Wells Fargo) on the line.
The night began with networking time while attendees were free to roam the delightfully bizarre Imagination Station Science & History Museum (where one can find a suspended, boulder-from-Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark-sized globe, a rock climbing wall, several large snakes, and several medium-sized lizards, among other oddities).
After some time, RIoT Executive Director Tom Snyder took center stage (in an old courtroom space incidentally) to discuss the program, introduce the judges, and ultimately give way to the presentations.
Here are a few words on the startups and founders attendees heard from to cap off RAP XXII.
RoboLeanX (Charlotte) –– Presented by Kashyap Gaglani
RoboLean X is deploying physical AI trained by industrial expertise in a bid to bring about “robots that learn like employees.” Kashyap framed cognition as a differentiator, noting that RoboLeanX’s robotics can listen, respond, and reason rather than just perform pre-programmed tasks.
GreySun Technologies (Raleigh) –– Presented by Cade Spector
With his flagship product, GreyBand, Founder Cade Spector aims to help users—primarily college students—”build better relationships with alcohol.” The GreyBand app works alongside wearables to track habits, foster accountability, and help users understand limits. (Editor’s note: Cade also pitched at Grep-a-Palooza 2026; you can also read about GreySun in a GrepBeat feature.)
ImLoopedIn (Wilson) –– Presented by Derik Gadson
Derik Gadson presented ImLoopedIn as “where local life gets discovered”—a platform whereby people can find and engage with local businesses and events they might not otherwise be aware of. He stressed that this is neither a social feed nor an algorithm-driven recommendation service, but rather a “community-powered discovery platform.”
Pod Farms (Virginia / Wilson) –– Presented by Toni Sperry
Toni Sperry began her pitch by speaking to the need for vertical farming to sustain agriculture, noting that the process can “100x” what we can grow in a field. However, she pointed out, most vertical farming occurs at indoor facilities and involves significant energy cost. Pod Farms aims to circumvent that cost by building modular vertical farming into greenhouses, where there is no need for artificial light.
Superior Love Forever (Rocky Mount) –– Presented by Dr. Darlene Williams-Prades
Superior Love Forever’s flagship product is “Watch Owl”—a safety and caregiving response platform that connects vulnerable people to caregivers and responders “so concern becomes coordinated action.” The platform supports geofencing safety zones, multiple “hoot alert” levels, and works with a wearable that only caregivers can remove from a patient’s wrist.
NeuroFin Inc. (Charlotte) –– Presented by Davian Rhodes
NeuroFin Inc. revolves primarily around bizzOS, a flagship product that Founder Davian Rhodes described as “the missing piece to your business operations.” The bizzOS platform is designed to automate repetitive work and augment teams, centralizing everything from customer discovery to internal decision-making in “one place” and letting employees focus on their work.
Federant (Wilson) –– Presented by Steve Yates
Federant is on a mission to make physical AI “deployable, safe, and trustworthy.” CEO Steve Yates noted that while most of today’s AI is ‘built for the datacenter,” the field breaks all assumptions. With Federant, he and his co-founder aim to close the gap between physical AI adoption and governance, providing “governed autonomy for Edge AI.”
Nuream (Wilmington) –– Presented by Nathan Munton
Nuream is on a mission to combat the epidemic of poor sleep. Along the way, the startup is also pioneering fabric-as-a-sensor technology, which can collect brain and heart data through pillowcases (and other fabrics). Using this data, Nuream can not only work toward recommendations that yield better sleep, but can also detect important signals relating to diseases like dementia, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and more. (Read more about Nuream in a recent GrepBeat feature.)
Following presentations, there was an audience vote followed by networking time while the judges (who had each conducted some Q&A with founders following pitches) deliberated on their own favorites.
The audience vote resulted, for what Tom Snyder indicated was the first time, in a tie (something, incidentally, an American audience is always a bit more willing to accept amidst a World Cup like the one playing out even during this demo night). NeuroFin Inc. and Superior Love Forever were both honored.
Immediately thereafter, Davian Rhodes of NeuroFin Inc. was called back up to receive the judges’ award—which took the form of a trophy crafted by a local Wilson artist. The trophy is difficult to describe, but doing my best, it’s basically an upright robotic arm holding what I believe was referred to as a “whirligig.” So… now you have a clear picture.
Before setting attendees lose for food, drink, networking, and a chance to examine the large snakes lounging in nearby vivariums, Tom Snyder revealed that Wells Fargo had chipped in with some financial rewards as part of a mission to assist RIoT and NC IDEA in fostering innovation and boosting rural economies. Three of the participating startups—ImLoopedIn, Pod Farms, and GreySun Technologies—were awarded $2K each.
And that was a wrap on RAP XXII!
Below are some more photos from the event:
