Seline from Mount Allison University was the big winner last month at the BMO Apex Startup Challenge in Fredericton, taking home $8,500 in prizes.
The Apex event is an annual pitching competition hosted by the International Business and Entrepreneurship Centre at University of New Brunswick. Some 55 competitors from universities across Canada entered the competition to vie for $30,000 in cash prizes.
Led by Mary Goudy, Seline captured the $8,000 first prize in the undergraduate track at the competition, as well as the $500 prize for the Best Financial Model Award. The Mount A venture also took home the Venture Catalyst Award.
Seline aims to eliminate the guesswork in prescribing hormonal contraception by using multi-point hormonal testing across a full menstrual cycle to provide diagnostic data.
The other winners in the undergraduate stream were both from UNB: Hexoris won the second prize worth $4,000 and Niavra the $2,000 third prize.
In the graduate track, the $8,000 first prize was won by McMaster University’s Wonder Guard, which is developing technology to make urinary tract infections easier to detect. CELLECT Laboratories and JTCipher, both from University of Waterloo, won the $4,000 second prize and $2,000 third prize respectively.
CELLECT Labs also won $1,000 for the top elevator pitch. The $500 second place in the elevator pitch competition went to Is This A Scam from St. Francis Xavier University, while Safe Mail Inc. from UNB captured the $250 third prize.
The other prizes were:
- Viewers’ Choice: Operio, Dalhousie University and Queen’s University ($250)
- Entrepreneurial Powerhouse: GigLink, University of New Brunswick
- McInnes Cooper Legal Services Package, Meshed, University of New Brunswick
- Rising Star: Artemis, Nicole Vera, St. Thomas University
- Startup Innovation: Operio
