Prior to the release of the Silicon Prairie Annual Report, which will arrive in October, SPN asked a couple of communities to provide their own top 10 regarding their startup ecosystem.

SPN asked Randon Gettys, Director of Startup Greater Peoria at the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council, to help us create a list for Peoria, Illinois, and provide a unique insight into what is happening in the community.

Of note, Gettys provided five companies (60% of which have non-white or female founders) and five community attributes.

Here is Randon Gettys’ top ten for Peoria:

1. AutonomouStuff (acquired 2018) is positioned as the leading supplier of high end autonomous systems components to over 2000 customers worldwide, provider of systems integration engineering and consulting, manufacturer of autonomous vehicles.
2. VirtuSense Technologies is a machine vision + AI startup with applications in healthcare, senior living, and personal training.
3. TADA Cognitive Solutions is a SaaS business intelligence platform offering unique digital navigation of a business’s Digital Duplicate™.
4. Natural Fiber Welding is a materials science company developing technologies sustainable production processes that will enable the “circular economy” beginning with cotton.
5. Bump Boxes is a B2C pregnancy subscription box company shipping 300,000 boxes annually and growing.
6. OSF* Innovation provides an ecosystem of healthcare innovation assets.  The whole of which is unmatched nationally.
7. Tuner Center for Entrepreneurship at Bradley University offers an impressive suite of entrepreneur support programs and services.
8. Early retirees – Peoria is beginning to see increased participation in new startup endeavors by Caterpillar retirees in the startup ecosystem.
9. River City Labs – Peoria’s community makerspace has grown into larger spaces twice and has enormous potential to support physical prototyping with just a little added capacity.
10. Innovation clusters – we’re planting a flag and declaring ourselves as a region of excellence in Autonomous Mobility Systems, Remote Delivery of Healthcare, FarmTech and Diverse Cropping Systems. Our doors are open to anyone wishing to work on problems and develop solutions in those spaces.

If you want to get more involved in Peoria, Randon Gettys (t: @randongettys) can get you connected!

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*Order of St. Francis