Thursday, January 27, 2022
Despite the challenges faced in 2021, students, staff and alumni at the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business continued to demonstrate resilience and accomplished many achievements. Here are a few highlights from the past year.
Winter Term
Shane Kilpatrick (MBET '18), Founder and CEO of Membio
- In late January, six teams of Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) students participated in the virtual 2021 APEX Business Plan Competition. All winners are MBET 2021 students including, Maaz Hashimi and Arsalan Badar who placed Second Overall for their venture, ASPx; Stefanie Bruinsma who won Second Place in the Elevator Pitch for her venture, MissMechanic; and Hanna Kyoski and Paul Marchildon who won Best Social Enterprise for their venture, Cove.
- Two teams consisting of current and former Conrad School undergraduates and MBET students, placed within the top three at the 2021 Jack Rosen Pitch Competition. Tooba Mohtsham and Gabriel Saunders (MBET 2020) took home the top prize for Decomp. Three undergraduate BET course students, Nicholas Jelich (Science and Business '19), Liahm Ruest (Master's of Rhetoric and Communications Design '21) and Alexander Racher (Environment and Business '21) placed in the top three for Team Prokaryo.
- In March, MBET 2018 alumnus, Shane Kilpatrick was featured in a story on Waterloo News. Kilpatrick is the Founder and CEO of Membio, a Canadian startup focused on developing a bio-manufacturing process that will allow the production of functioning red blood cells in a lab.
- NERv Technology Inc., a startup based in Kitchener-Waterloo has raised $3.32 million CAD through a seed round of funding. The co-founding team consists of several University of Waterloo alumni including MBET 2017 graduate, Amr Abdelgawad. Read the full story here.
Spring Term
- MBET-student ventures ASPx and EMRE along with Enterprise Co-op (E Co-op)-student ventures Microbuild, Scena and Maesos, participated in the spring term Concept $5k competition finals. Maesos, founded by BET 300 (Foundations of Venture Creation) and E Co-op students were one of the winners. Watch their winning pitch here.
- Rachel Bartholomew (MBET 2014) was featured in a Waterloo Magazine article where she discussed her story and motivation behind her venture, Hyivy Health. The startup is to offer an at-home rehabilitation system that provides clinicians with real-time data on their patient’s pelvic floor health.
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In August, the Conrad School appointed two new faculty members: Horatio Morgan and Dean Pacey. Horatio is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship, Business and Organizational Behaviour and teaches BET 340 (Essentials of Entrepreneurial Planning and Execution). Dean joined us as a lecturer and currently teaches BET 430 (Sales Fundamentals) in addition to delivering sales workshops for MBET students. Read more.
- Alex Rodrigues and Brandon Moak are former BET 300 and Enterprise Co-op students, who have taken their venture Embark Trucks public. Read about their journey here.
Fall Term
Yvonne Osagie (MBET ‘23 candidate), Founder of Medical Melanin
- Gabriel Saunders (MBET 2020) led the Decomp team to victory at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s (CEC) Youth Innovation Challenge. In addition to the opportunity to present their project to North America’s top environmental officials at the CEC’s 2021 Council session, the team won $15,000 in seed funding. Read more here.
- Propel Holdings Inc., a financial technology company founded by Noah Buchman (MBET 2009) and another Waterloo Engineering Alumni, raised $61 million and was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
- All eight semi-finalist teams at the fall 2021 Concept $5k are made up of current and former undergraduate BET 300 and/or BET 320 (Entrepreneurial Strategy) and graduate MBET students. The winning teams include Learnlist, PERCare, Hydro House and Microbuild.
- Yvonne Osagie, a current part-time MBET student won the Fall 2021 Quantum Valley Investments® Problem Pitch, for her venture Medical Melanin. She started her venture to tackle the problem of Women of Color being misdiagnosed in the medical field at a greater rate compared to non-Women of Color.