Two Emerging Startups Win RivCo Fast Pitch Riverside Regional and Advance to County Finals
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (April 16, 2026) - Two emerging startups advanced to the next stage of competition Thursday evening as TollRAir and Super Foam took top honors at the RivCo Fast Pitch - Riverside Regional, held at Riverside ExCITE as part of Riverside County Innovation Month. Now in its ninth year, Riverside County Innovation Month is the county’s annual celebration of entrepreneurship, emerging technologies, and the organizations helping bold ideas grow into scalable businesses. Held each April, the initiative brings together startups, investors, business leaders, higher education institutions, and public-sector partners through pitch competitions, networking events, workshops, and ecosystem activations that highlight the region’s growing innovation economy.
Hosted in Downtown Riverside at Riverside ExCITE - a startup incubator and innovation hub created through a partnership between the City of Riverside, the County of Riverside, and the University of California, Riverside - the event brought together founders, community leaders, and ecosystem partners for an evening of live startup pitches, networking, and regional visibility. The competition highlighted the strength of Riverside’s entrepreneurial pipeline and the continued momentum behind the city’s innovation ecosystem.
This year’s Riverside Regional featured five finalists selected for their commercialization potential, founder readiness, and compelling solutions to real-world challenges, with ventures spanning cleantech, advanced materials, healthcare diagnostics, product innovation, and security technology. Together, TollRAir, Super Foam, AttenDx LLC, Rotary, and AeroShield Security reflected the diversity of innovation emerging across the region and the breadth of ideas being developed by Riverside-area founders.
The finalists were evaluated by a panel of judges selected for their expertise in entrepreneurship, capital access, venture growth, and regional economic development. The panel included Oralia Alvarez, Director of Business Development at Mission Driven Finance; Karen Serrano, a community development leader at First Community Capital; and Dr. Steve Flaim, a life sciences executive, investor, and entrepreneur with leadership experience across academia, venture capital, and startup growth and entrepreneur-in-residence at UC Riverside's EPIC mentorship program.
Following the live pitches and judges’ deliberation, TollRAir, represented by Keziyah Yisrael-Gayle, was awarded first place and a $2,500 cash prize sponsored by the City of Riverside. The company is developing cleantech and air quality-focused technology aimed at improving environmental monitoring and air management solutions. Super Foam, represented by Zef Neemuchwala, earned second place and received a $1,500 cash prize sponsored by Riverside ExCITE. The company is developing an advanced foam and materials-based innovation with potential applications across industrial, consumer, and sustainability-focused markets. AttenDx LLC was named third place, receiving a $1,000 cash prize sponsored by Columbia Bank.
As the top two winners of the Riverside Regional, TollRAir and Super Foam will now advance to the Riverside County Innovation Month Fast Pitch Finale on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, at the Riverside Convention Center, where top startups from regional competitions across the county will compete for larger cash prizes and the opportunity to represent Riverside County on an even bigger stage. The countywide finale winner will go on to represent the region at the Startup World Cup Grand Finale, where startups compete for a $1 million equity investment. The county finale will take place at 5:00 p.m. at the Riverside Convention Center, located at 3637 5th Street in Riverside.
Click here to get free tickets to the Riverside County Innovation Month Fast Pitch Finale. To learn more about Riverside County Innovation Month, click here.
