Alabama’s inaugural Founder Fest and Innovate Alabama’s State of Innovation combined Tuesday to showcase the strength of Alabama’s innovation economy and its growing tech ecosystem.

For the first time, Alabama incubator programs like gener8tor and Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator worked along with the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama’s Alabama Launchpad program to hold a combined pitch competition.

Founder Fest saw more than 40 startups compete in a Pitch Blitz competition at Innovation Depot. Up for grabs was $10,000 for the most investable pitch (won by Pay4Me App), $5,000 for the most game-changing pitch (won by HydroPhos Solutions) and $2,500 for the best pitch (won by CLEO Education).

Those startups making pitches varied greatly from emerging tech, agriculture, energy, medical, software, artificial intelligence and more.

The first day of Founder Fest culminated in a Founder Fest Showcase expo showcasing some of the standout companies at an awards ceremony and dinner at Regions Field as part of Innovate Alabama’s State of Innovation event.

Alabama Founder Fest also offers networking opportunities and Deal Flow Day today, where strategic meetings and interactions with potential investors can take place. A celebratory after-party will conclude the event.

One of the primary benefits of Alabama Founder Fest is bringing tech startups from all over the state together into one event. Another is consolidating the pitch days into one single event.

“This has been a passion project of mine. I noticed that we’ve had a lot of demo days throughout the year and, you know what, they always compete for the same times,” said Matthew Jaeh, managing director of Techstars Alabama. “We wanted to bring it all together under one roof this time.”

Lanchpad had eight finalists who did their typical long-form pitches for Launchpad funding prior to the Founder Fest Pitch Blitz.

“Nobody wants to go to seven or eight separate events during the month of December,” said Miller Girvin, chief operating officer at EDPA. “Why not combine forces to create something really, really cool? So this was our first attempt at doing that, and we are thrilled with the way it’s turned out.”

For gener8tor, which works with accelerator programs in Huntsville, Birmingham and Mobile, Founder Fest was a great chance to bring startups together.

“We’re lucky in Alabama to have so many accelerator programs across the state,” said Emily Wykle, region vice president with gener8tor. “The exciting thing about Founder Fest is it was really an opportunity to bring all of those programs together. I think that makes it particularly powerful having everybody in one place.”

Wykle said Alabama Founder Fest and Innovate Alabama’s State of Innovation being held in conjunction with each other help show the collaboration taking place within the state’s innovation ecosystem.

“We’re all sort of pulling in the same direction, which I think is a sea change from where we’ve been,” she said.

Girvin said it’s hard to look at those events and not see how Alabama is a hotbed for the tech economy.

“When you watch those pitches, you see how many companies come from out of state and outside of the United States to join these accelerators, and those that are in Alabama going through Alabama Launchpad just have such great potential for the state of Alabama,” she said. “So, we’re really glad to see those companies and those founders recognizing the gem that we have in the state of Alabama and the potential that their companies can really have to grow and thrive here.”