Waterloo robotics entrepreneur is finalist for $100,000 award

Matt Rendall, a robotics entrepreneur who got his start at the University of Waterloo, is a finalist for the $100,000 Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) Young Entrepreneur Award.

The grand prize winner will be selected by a public vote combined with a score from a national committee made up of top Canadian executives.

The public can vote for Matt Rendall, CEO of Clearpath Robotics, until June 17 at noon EST.

From Waterloo student to founder of global company

Clearpath Robotics, launched six years ago, is a multi-million dollar operation with an international reputation for building robots for everything from mining and agriculture to disaster relief. Clearpath also creates robots for researchers globally, with clients that include the Department of National Defense, the Canadian Space Agency, the US Navy, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon University.

Passion for robotics started as a fourth-year design project

The seed for Clearpath began when Rendall and three other Waterloo mechatronics engineering students developed an interest in building robots during their fourth-year capstone design project. Rendall also pursued a Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) at the University of Waterloo’s Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship, and Technology Centre.

Bringing good jobs back to factories

Rendall and co-founders, Ryan Gariepy (CTO) and Bryan Webb (COO/CFO) have been named to the Business Insider’s top 40 Under 40: People To Watch In 2015 along with Yahoo!’s Marissa Mayer and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.