News

Andrew Martinko (BASc ’15, MBET ’16) is the co-founder of Suncayr and its hero product, SpotMyUV, a UV detection sticker that tells you when to reapply sunscreen. It works by placing a small, round sticker on your skin that’s purple when it goes on and turns clear when you apply sunscreen, absorbing the product just as your skin does. When the sticker turns purple again, it’s time to reapply.

Tapping into the entrepreneurial ecosystem at the University of Waterloo, Martinko and his engineering Capstone team leveraged the entrepreneurial opportunities available to them at UWaterloo to turn an idea into a viable product.

Sushan Shetty (MBET ' 22) works for Mastercard as an Associate Managing Consultant. He takes customer data and creates personalized, real-time communications for his clients. These new tactics reshape marketing techniques that have been used by credit card companies for decades. Read on to learn about how entrepreneurship becomes intrepreneurship. This different take on innovation within a company is exactly what Shetty is doing in his current role. Learn about how his experience in the MBET program has allowed him to stand out.

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.

A startup founded by second-year Waterloo Engineering students just five years ago would have a market capitalization of US $5.16 billion under a proposed merger to make it a publicly traded company.

Embark Trucks, which is based in San Francisco, was launched by former mechatronics engineering students Alex Rodrigues and Brandon Moak to bring autonomous technology to the trucking industry.

NERv Technology, a Kitchener-Waterloo-based startup offering a sensory platform designed for the healthtech sector, has closed a $3.32 million CAD ($2.65 million USD) seed round of funding.

The seed round was led by returning investor SOSV, with participation from Graphene Ventures, OneValley, Northspring Capital Partners, Boutique Venture Partners, and Threshold Impact. A number of additional undisclosed strategic investors, angels, and physicians also invested in the round.

For graduating master’s students, convocation is an important recognition of their hard work and dedication. Some will move on to professional roles, while others plan to continue the research that has captured their imagination.

As they celebrate their accomplishments with their families and supporters, Waterloo recognizes the commitment and success of our master’s students, including these six graduands.

The Hult Prize @ Waterloo competition energizes and activates socially-conscious entrepreneurs at Waterloo and beyond, and this year will no doubt be one of the most exciting yet! Food is a universal need and source of comfort. The theme for this year’s Hult Prize challenge, dubbed “The Nobel Prize for Students”, is Food for Good. The mission? To create jobs, stimulate economies, reimagining supply chains, and improving outcomes of 10 million people by 2030.

Hot on the heels on of their initial $29 million (USD) Series C funding announcement for Otto Motors, a division of Clearpath Robotics, this stellar example of Waterloo-entrepreneurship has announced an additional $6.6 million (USD) extension to their historic funding round. 

Shane Kilpatrick (MSc ’17, MBET ’18) is the CEO of Membio, a Canadian startup creating technology to manufacture red blood cells. In the Waterloo Magazine, he touches on the challenges and opportunities that COVID-19 presents for Canadian innovation.

Ten student venture teams will have the opportunity to win one of four $5,000 grants at the Concept $5K finals today. Six out of ten ventures have founders that are current or former students of the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business.