Twenty five companies have advanced in the Scale Up North Awards, the new awards program from Traverse Connect. The program replaces the Small Business Celebration. It spotlights successful companies from the five-county region in two categories: Emerging Business, for those open less than five years, and the Hagerty Scaling Business category,for those which have been operating for more than five years, with revenue of $500,000 or more in 2019 and 150 employees or fewer.

The businesses advancing in the former category are Burly Rentals; Earthen Ales; Geotix Network; HealthBridge Financial; Hybrid Robotics, Inc.; Interactive Aerial, Inc.; Loop Software & Testing; SampleServe, Inc.; Table Health; and Traverse Solar. Established business advancing in the Hagerty Scaling Business category are Adaptive Counseling and Case Management, LLC; ATLAS Space Operations, Inc.; Beards Brewery; Dave’s Garage; Higher Grounds Trading Co.; JennyClean; Lake Effect Digital; Mammoth Distilling, LLC; MAWBY Sparkling Wine; Naveego, Inc.; Parshall Tree Care Experts; Stone House Bread; TentCraft, Inc.; Third Coast Bakery; and Web Canopy Studio.

The Scale Up North Showcase with all 25 businesses will take place Thursday, Feb. 27, at The Hagerty Center at Northwestern Michigan College. It is free and open to the public. Register here for the event.

The Scale Up North Finals will take place Wednesday, March 18, at the City Opera House. The Scale Up North Finals will feature a pitch competition for the three finalists for the Emerging Business Award, followed by a moderated panel discussion with the three finalists for the Hagerty Scaling Business Award. Judges will deliberate and make a live announcement of the winners that evening. Tickets are $31.50 and are available here.