By Kim McDarison

BaristaCats Cafe has emerged as the first-place winner of the Whitewater WindUp startup competition, according to city officials.

The final round of the competition was held Saturday morning at the Whitewater University Innovation Center.

A second-place winner is Wellnest Shop, and third place went to Stellar Vintage.

The winners were selected by a panel of judges and were among 13 businesses that were narrowed down to eight during a semifinalist round.

A press release, naming the eight semifinalists was released earlier this month.

They were:

• Whitewater Grocery Cooperative

• The Book Teller

• Uptown Revive

• Stellar Vintage

• The Wellnest Shop

• The Poppy Seed Company

• BaristaCats Café

• • BH Events LLC- Bowers House
• 
  

Judges making the final selections included: Whitewater City Councilman Neil Hicks, CDA board member Christ Christon, student and young entrepreneur Chad Tjgum, Jefferson County Economic Development Consortium Director Deb Reinbold, Walworth County Economic Development Alliance Director Derek D’Auria, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater College of Business and Economics professor and a Whitewater WindUp workshop facilitator Kevin Kaufman, and Miguel Aranda, who is a Whitewater Unified School District Board of Education member serving the panel as a community representative.

Those participating in the event competed for some portion of $160,000 in prize money, supplied by the Whitewater Community Development Authority (CDA).

A dispersement of prize money, and other particulars about the competition, will soon be released, city officials have said.

This story may be updated.