CHICAGO -

The automotive segment of the 15th annual Chicago Innovation Awards honored six companies, including vAuto, DRIVIN, CarLease.com and ForeverCar.com.

The Chicago Innovation Awards is that region’s foremost recognition of the most innovative new products or services brought to market or to public service each year. A record-breaking 643 organizations were nominated for this year’s awards.

“Local innovators continue to illuminate the Chicago region as a growing hotbed of creative activity that cuts across all sectors and industries,” said Tom Kuczmarski, co-founder with Chicago journalist Dan Miller of the awards. “Every winner of the Chicago Innovation Awards demonstrates how a unique solution to an unmet need can bring transformative impact in the marketplace.”

The winners were announced at an event held at Chicago’s Harris Theater on Tuesday, with nearly 1,500 business and civic leaders in attendance. The winning organizations receive a variety of honors including the opportunity to ring the NASDAQ Bell in New York City, and meetings with the mayor of Chicago, governor of Illinois and president of Cook County.

In less than 30 days, more than 1,000 franchise and independent dealers signed up for Stockwave, an innovative tool from vAuto that can make finding and purchasing wholesale vehicles easier and more efficient for dealers.

Through deep integrations with leading auctions and Cox Automotive technology, Stockwave automatically can stream wholesale vehicles that match a dealer’s used-vehicle investment strategy, target profit, age, condition, equipment and other preferences.

DRIVIN is a marketplace that can allow dealer partners to sell, search and buy the right used vehicles to optimize inventory on their lot and increase profitability. DRIVIN combines data science with an experienced, high-touch service model to make vehicle elimination and acquisition seamless and efficient for dealers.

“We are very proud to accept a Chicago Innovation Award, joining many fantastic Chicago-area companies that have been recognized over the years,” said Kayne Grau, co-founder and chief executive officer of DRIVIN. “DRIVIN has seen incredible momentum over the past year with our commitment to disrupting the traditional methods for acquiring and selling used car inventory, and we look forward to continuing to drive value for our dealer partners.”

ForeverCar.com is a full-service provider of vehicle repair protection plans as the company reached a strategic partnership with CUNA Mutual Group last month.

“ForeverCar.com is removing the hassle of repairing your car,” ForeverCar.com CEO Mark Hodes said. “We’ve used technology to completely reinvent the car repair experience so that our customers can get back to the things that matter. We’re proud to be recognized with the Chicago Innovation Award.”

Along with CarLease.com — a site that facilitates vehicle leases for consumers — the other two automotive winners at the Chicago Innovation Awards included HubTran, a provider of transportation back-office automation technology, and Four Kites, a transportation tracking software provider.