By Staff Report Thursday, April 30th, 2026

By Steve Ellison

Special to the Business Times

Cantaloupe AI, a recruiting platform that automates frontline hiring using voice interviews and delivers ranked recommendations, took home the grand prize of $155,000 at the ninth annual AngelCon at Rod & Hammer Rock in San Luis Obispo.

The April 30 conference, hosted by the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Small Business Development Center, featured six startup companies delivering their pitches for a group of investors, and Cantaloupe AI came out on top.

Cantaloupe co-founder and CEO Rich Simmerman told the audience his company recently helped the popular fast food chain Wendy’s with its locations in Alabama and Florida whose managers were “drowning in resumes.”

“We gave their managers 94 hours back from reading resumes, and we saved them $48,000 in verified savings, all in just two months with one workflow,” Simmerman said during his pitch. “We don’t just track applicants. We listen to them and learn from them with each and every conversation and get the right people at the right role quicker than ever.”

Simmerman said the funding will help Cantaloupe AI in the go to market as it targets the enterprise quick-service restaurant space.

The Audience Choice Award, which totaled $2,975 at the time it was announced, went to Ecoplasticity, a seaweed-based coating designed to replace plastic take-out container linings with a compostable alternative