This story appears in the September 2025 issue of Utah Business. Subscribe.
Presented by Foley & Lardner, the 2025 Innovation Awards honor the innovative companies and individuals who alleviate complex problems with elegant solutions.
Nominees were evaluated by a judging committee assembled by Foley & Lardner:
- Jerry Henley | Utah Innovation Fund
- Nate Adler | Skavengerz
- DJ Strader | SOLO
- Matt Castleberry | Ampleo
- Craig Miller | 47G
- Ron Heffernan | Impact Capital Partner
- Cara Baldwin | Torus
- G. Meads
- Adam Smith | Merit Medical
- Dolly Casper | Thermo Fisher Scientific
- Sujatha Sampath | Booz Allen Hamilton
- Trevor Clark | Trove Brands
- Jay Muse | Med Ventures Holdings Group & Piper Access
Consumer Products
1st - Babaloo
Babaloo’s Baby-Led Bottle is the world’s first airless, baby-led and gravity-free baby bottle. Instead of relying on vents, valves or straws to manage air intake, it uses a patented collapsible silicone milk bag that gently compresses as the baby drinks — eliminating air completely. This design mimics natural breastfeeding, giving babies control over the flow and allowing comfortable bottle feeding in any position.
2nd - Troomi
Today’s kids are growing up in a digital world that wasn’t designed for them. Most smartphones expose children to harmful content or rely on restrictive parental controls that don’t foster trust, growth or self-regulation. KidSmart OS solves this by offering a complete operating system that evolves with a child’s maturity. KidSmart OS sets a new standard for youth technology that puts the child’s well-being, not just their safety, at the center.
3rd - Project Yarrow
Project Yarrow is creating a discreet smart safety device that empowers women with instant tools to prevent and respond to danger, bringing confidence and peace of mind into everyday life. Unlike bulky alarms or after-the-fact apps, Yarrow blends prevention and response into one powerful tool — fast access to help, local resources and protection features — all designed to be intuitive, reliable and invisible until it’s needed most.
Honorable Mention - Listen Technologies
Auri, from Ampetronic and Listen Technologies, is the world’s first Auracast broadcast audio assistive listening system. It delivers high-quality, low-latency audio directly to personal Auracast-compatible devices or dedicated receivers, making public spaces more accessible for everyone.
Emerging - Not A Wheelchair
Not A Wheelchair offers unique off-road wheelchairs, custom manual wheelchairs, and other mobility solutions direct-to-consumer through its website and industry-first online configurator, allowing the company to provide highly valued options with more customer control at more affordable prices. Not A Wheelchair’s off-road products are unique in their capability to give people mobility and access to the outdoors where they have been unable to go due to their loss of mobility.
Healthcare & Life Sciences
1st - Proactive Health
Proactive Health is transforming healthcare from being reactive to proactive, using data science to help identify health concerns and intervene early — before issues become critical. This process and technology reduce preventable hospital visits by over 50 percent.
2nd - Halia Therapeutics Inc.
Halia Therapeutics is pioneering GENMOR-AI (Genetic Modifier of Resilience - Artificial Intelligence), a paradigm shift in precision medicine by focusing on genetic resilience rather than disease susceptibility. Its platform analyzes complex datasets — including multi-generational pedigrees, electronic medical records and genomic sequences — to identify individuals who remain healthy despite carrying high-risk genetic variants. Halia then decodes the protective mechanisms behind this resilience and translates those insights into novel therapeutic targets. Currently leveraging population-scale databases, GENMOR-AI is advancing drug discovery programs for Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, cardiovascular disease and other complex inflammatory conditions.
3rd - Turner Imaging Systems
Turner Imaging Systems has created ENDURO DR, a compact, battery-powered X-ray system engineered for precision and cordless portability. It offers high-quality digital imaging in seconds, on demand, wherever care is delivered. Future enhancements in wireless image sharing, AI-driven analysis, and even lighter, more rugged designs will expand its impact in sports medicine, military, emergency response and remote care.
Honorable Mention - Co-Diagnostics Inc.
The Co-Dx PCR platform enables real-time PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) testing from home or at the point of care. This user-friendly, reliable, and cloud-enabled PCR testing is operated via a smartphone interface. Co-Diagnostics is not just improving diagnostic testing; it is redefining where, when, and by whom it can be performed. This platform opens the door to real-time infectious disease diagnostics anytime, anywhere.
Emerging - Biologic Input Output Systems (BIOS)
BIOS’s technology is designed to intercept, capture and edit neural signals, revolutionizing how neurological diseases and disabilities are treated. Between 50 and 70 percent of amputees abandon their prosthesis due to limited functionality, difficulty controlling the device, no sensory feedback, and the lack of a direct neural interface with AI integration. The BIOS Universal Neural Interface allows advanced, sensorized prostheses, like the state-of-the-art bionic LUKE Arm, to move and feel like a biological arm. The LUKE Arm, developed under the U.S. Department of Defense for injured soldiers, stands for Life Under Kinetic Evolution, a nod to Luke Skywalker.
Industrial Manufacturing
1st - BZI
BZI saw an opportunity to apply its equipment and technology — which revolutionized floor panelization — to walls. The WallMaster 300 is a telehandler attachment designed to handle and transport panelized insulated metal panels to their installation locations. It works side by side with ground-level assembly on the WallTable.
2nd - BluSky AI Inc.
BluSky AI Inc. is committed to advancing technology and providing unparalleled services in the data center industry. The company’s innovation is poised to redefine the AI industry’s infrastructure layer by shifting the paradigm from centralized hyperscale data centers to agile, distributed compute networks.
3rd - Wūru Wool Company
Wūru manufactures award-winning merino wool apparel in Salt Lake City by using lean and small-batch manufacturing processes. The company lets the consumer dictate production, which has led to drastically reducing stockouts, eliminating waste and drastically improving cash flow.
Honorable Mention - Axcend
Axcend’s newest product additions, the AutoFocus and FocusArray, extend the company’s capillary liquid chromatography platform into a complete solution that covers the entire lifecycle of analytical chemistry. From discovery and development to quality control and process analytical technology in manufacturing, these systems deliver the precision, scalability and flexibility required across diverse industries.
Emerging - Precision Harness
The Lodestone Magnetic Trailer Plug is a durable and reliable electrical connector designed for 7- and 4-way trailer applications. Its unique magnetic design allows it to stick to any metal part of the trailer when not in use. This feature helps save time and money by reducing damage, preventing loss, and simplifying storage while ensuring consistent electrical contact even in harsh environments.
Software
1st - OneMeta
OneMeta’s VerbumSuite is an AI-powered multilingual communication platform designed to eliminate language barriers across voice, video and live environments. Comprising VerbumAgentis, VerbumCall, VerbumMeetings, and VerbumOnSite, the suite delivers real-time translation, transcription, and interpretation in 150+ languages with >95 percent accuracy. OneMeta’s patented AI integrates context and sentiment analysis, enabling secure, compliant (SOC2, HIPAA, GDPR), and scalable communication experiences across industries.
2nd - SmallMinds
SmallMinds’ DataFlood is a system that generates synthetic data for software testing and other applications. It consists of a console application for creating human-readable and editable DataFlood models from sample documents and generating test data. Tides, a document sequencer system, serves documents from DataFlood models over time. The API FloodGate can serve documents generated from DataFlood models and sequenced using Tides configuration files.
3rd - Waystar
More than half of denied claims ultimately get overturned, but the appeal process has historically been time-consuming, complex and error-prone for healthcare providers. Generative AI unlocks a new era of productivity and precision, transforming how the industry simplifies claims, appeals and payment workflows. With Waystar’s AI-powered software platform Waystar AltitudeAI, providers of all sizes are better equipped to appeal denied claims with unprecedented efficiency, accuracy and ease.
Honorable Mention - Mountain America Credit Union
Life can be expensive. How expensive? That depends on your choices. The Game of Money is a choose-your-own-adventure simulator that shows teens and young adults the financial consequences of decisions. It offers a wide range of possibilities, giving players more life-choice options than a simple budgeting exercise.
Emerging - Music AI
Music AI delivers music and audio technology solutions through both its B2B Music.ai and B2C Moises.ai platforms. Serving over 60 million users in 190 countries and processing more than 2.5 million minutes of audio daily, Music AI provides over 50 advanced AI models via Cloud APIs and Embedded SDKs — including tools for stem separation, lyric transcription and more.
Cleantech
1st - TELLUS
AirView by TELLUS is a real-time environmental intelligence platform that combines high-accuracy air quality sensors, patented calibration technology and intuitive software to help communities, businesses and governments make informed decisions. AirView will transform environmental data from a static report into a dynamic tool for public health, sustainability and operational efficiency.
2nd - CleanJoule
CleanJoule wants to be a bridge between what’s needed now and what’s possible next. CycloRP is a drop-in replacement for RP-1 and RP-2 liquid rocket propellant, offering 4 percent higher energy density for greater payload capacity and distance. From the same base material, CleanJoule also makes a superior, sustainable solid rocket fuel for use in current solid rocket motors.
3rd - Reef Life Foundation/IntelliReefs NanoTech
Oceanite, an advanced marine infrastructure material developed by IntelliReefs, is transforming marine ecosystem restoration and climate resilience while offering novel applications for military defense and coastal protection. The innovative mineral-rich substrate designed for coral and kelp restoration through artificial reefs provides high-impact marine biodiversity recovery.
Honorable Mention - Sky Quarry
Sky Quarry has developed a cleantech, closed-loop process that safely recycles and reuses asphalt shingle waste. The company’s patented ECOSolv process provides a unique solution by cleanly transforming post-consumer shingles into high-value recovered oil, asphalt cement and aggregate, turning a major waste stream into reusable resources.
Emerging - Trace Air Quality
The AQA Engine is an air quality forecasting system that combines physics-based modeling with machine learning techniques to predict air quality up to four days into the future. This system is particularly skillful in the prediction of air quality hazards produced by wildfire smoke, wind-blown dust and wintertime inversions.
Community & Professional Services
1st - WasteLess Solution
WasteLess Solutions believes no good food should go to waste when people are hungry — and that no edible food should rot in landfills, releasing harmful methane gas. The company connects surplus perishable food with skilled coordinators, hundreds of volunteers and community partners who work together to deliver it fresh, fast and with dignity to Utahns who need it most.
2nd - Catalyst
Catalyst creates innovative, scalable investment solutions to some of our nation’s most pressing challenges, forging pathways toward a more equitable, sustainable future. In early 2025, Catalyst announced the final close of Catalyst Opportunity Fund II (“Fund II”) with total capital commitments of $140 million. Fund II invests nationally in the ground-up development of new affordable housing units for America’s “missing middle” — working households who are increasingly at risk of unsustainable rent burdens and displacement.
3rd - MakeUtah
MakeUtah empowers innovation, entrepreneurship and technical advancement through programs that connect, collaborate, create and commercialize through access to mentorship, hands-on prototyping and advanced manufacturing. MakeUtah programs nurture future innovators and bridge the “exposure gap” for students in advanced manufacturing and hardtech.
Honorable Mention - UVU SMARTLab
The UVU SMARTLab uses a biometric approach to marketing research, combining eye-tracking, facial coding and neural response monitoring to reveal how consumers truly react to marketing in real time. The innovation removes the guesswork by providing objective, real-time data on consumer engagement, helping businesses make smarter, evidence-based decisions.
Emerging - LymanWealth
Quantelligent Investing is enhanced, aggressive index investing designed to include non-high-net-worth individuals through the application of quantitative analysis to standard, generally available investment tools. With an innovative combination of Dollar Cost Averaging and Value Averaging — and a bit of leverage via modulated exposure to index-tracking Leveraged ETFs — the LymanWealth strategy is designed to capture and compound the short-term volatility of major U.S. indexes while investing for long-term growth.
