Velocity Fund $5K winners (left to right) BioFlex Implant, Finuvo and Hash.
Velocity Science companies dominated the Fall 2015 Velocity Fund Final competition. Together, the four startups - Finuvo, Acorn Cyrotech, Sweat Free and Thalo - won $90K.
Finuvo kicked off the day by winning Best Pitch and $5K. Finuvo is developing an automated painting station to enable hobbyists and designers to create visually stunning parts by applying a variety of colours and patterns to the surface.
Next, Velocity Science companies Acorn Cryotech, Sweat Free and Thalo each won $25K in the afternoon Velocity Fund $25K competition.
The teams were all really good, and we were just holding our breath,” said biology student Ayan Abukar, from Acorn Cryotech.
Velocity Fund $25K winners (back, left to right) Sweat Free, Thalo, HealthIM and Acorn Cryotech.
Acorn Cryotech preserves the cells of youthful people today as a resource to draw from for personalized medical therapy in the future. This provides a bank of youthful cells for use in genetic therapies that reverse damage that occurs with age.
This just helps us get to the next level. We really weren’t expecting to win,” said Science and Business student Lauren Kennedy from Acorn Cryotech.
The company, Acorn Cryotech, developed from iGEM, Waterloo's undergraduate synthetic biology design team.
Sweat Free is a high-tech company for apparel, producing under-garments that prevent sweat stains from reaching and ruining your clothes.
This was an awesome opportunity for us," said Sweat Free founder Chanakya Ramdev. "We worked really hard to get where we are right now and are elated by the result.”
Thalo is building a new display technology to increase the battery life and daylight visibility of mobile devices.
We’re really excited to win,” said Nanotechnology student Ryan Marchewka. "We can move our technology development forward now."
Thalo also won an additional $10K for being the most innovative hardware startup.
Three times a year Velocity hosts the Velocity Fund Finals, a pitch competition, where $125,000 in prizes is awarded through its Velocity Fund $25K and Velocity Fund $5K programs.
