Top finishers in Pitch Elk Grove 2026 are, from left, Insta Brow, Pheronym and Krokos Bio. Photo courtesy of StartupSac

ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - More than 100 startups applied, and ten finalists made it to the stage. More than 300 people came together to watch them pitch.

Now in its fifth year, Pitch Elk Grove is produced by Invest Elk Grove, the city of Elk Grove’s Office of Economic Development. Since the competition began, the city has contracted with StartupSac to manage and organize the pitch-related aspects of the event, from the application and selection process through finalist preparation and the competition itself.

Pitch Elk Grove 2026 brought founders, entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders, and members of the regional startup community together to see promising companies compete and share what they are building.

For entrepreneurs wondering whether their startup is ready for an opportunity like Pitch Elk Grove, this year’s competition showed just how diverse those opportunities can be. The finalists represented different industries, technologies, and approaches to solving problems, but they shared something important: each founder was willing to put their idea in front of an audience and make the case for why it matters.

Krokos Bio Takes First Place

Krokos Bio is developing a next-generation plant cell culture platform designed to produce botanical ingredients more reliably.

The company’s first target is saffron, which comes from the saffron plant and is one of the world’s most expensive ingredients. Traditional saffron production faces challenges that include drought, low crop yields, labor-intensive harvesting, and an increasingly uncertain supply chain.

Krokos Bio is working to address those challenges with a food-grade saffron powder designed to deliver the color, flavor, and fragrance of traditional saffron while reducing costs and creating a more reliable supply.

The company took home the competition’s $10,000 first-place prize.

Insta Brow Finishes Second

For Insta Brow founder and CEO Destiny Oliphant, the idea for the company came directly from years of experience working with customers.

After a decade of doing brows, teaching artists, and serving clients, Oliphant saw the same problem repeatedly. Customers with sparse, thinning, uneven, or light brows were spending time every day filling them in, only to deal with products that could smear or fail to hold up throughout the day.

She set out to develop a different solution.

Working with a chemist, Oliphant created Insta Brow, a patent-pending waterproof brow stain that can be applied in about 30 seconds and last up to five days.

Insta Brow earned the $5,000 second-place prize and an additional $2,500 as the Best Elk Grove Startup.

Pheronym Takes Third

Pheronym is an agricultural biotechnology company developing nontoxic solutions for plant protection.

Led by co-founder and CEO Dr. Fatma Kaplan, the company uses pheromones to influence the behavior and development of microscopic roundworms called nematodes.

Pheronym currently has two products in its pipeline. Nemastim™ is designed to improve the effectiveness of beneficial nematodes used for insect pest control. PheroCoat™ is a seed treatment designed to direct plant-parasitic nematodes away from healthy plant roots.

The technology addresses a significant agricultural challenge. Farmers need effective ways to protect crops from pests while the industry searches for safer alternatives to traditional chemical pesticides.

Pheronym received the $2,500 third-place prize.