Waterloo Engineering entrepreneurs made another strong showing today at the main event of the Velocity Fund Finals for winter 2019, taking three of the four $50,000 investments that were on the line.
Investment-ready startups SiteVue, ClearVoxel and Glove Systems had three minutes to distinguish themselves in a field of nine competitors in the pitch event at the Tannery Event Centre in downtown Kitchener.
Winners with their ceremonial cheques at the Velocity Fund Finals held at the Tannery Event Centre.
It's the first time in the competition's history that winners will receive direct equity investments, not $25,000 grants as in the past.
SiteVue, a software platform that allows construction managers to monitor their projects, is led by Anthony Coelho, a 2013 civil engineering graduate from Waterloo. Its co-founder is Gustavo Couto.
ClearVoxel is creating solutions to enable radiologists to leverage AI to diagnose patients more quickly and accurately. Zamir Khan, who co-founded the startup with Yann Gagnon, is a 2005 computer engineering Waterloo alumnus.
Finals staged three times a year
Glove Systems was founded by Mahdi Sharif, a current PhD student who also earned his master’s degree in civil engineering at Waterloo, former Waterloo systems design engineering student Ray Simonson, and Carl Haas, a civil and environmental engineering professor. The fourth founder of the company, which provides a cloud-based, end-to-end solution for the fabrication industry, is Rob Payne.
The other winner of a $50,000 investment, as well as space at the Velocity Garage startup incubator, was Tugolo, which connects travelers with local people to find, customize and book authentic trips.
The Velocity Fund Finals are staged three times a year by the Velocity entrepreneurship program at the University of Waterloo.
The fund was established in 2011 with a $1-million donation from Kik Interactive founder Ted Livingston. Angel investor Mike Stork also donated $1 million to the fund in 2014.