St. John's -based Veristart, which is improving the security around using construction equipment, has been selected as one of five global winners of the EDF Startup Challenge and will present at Viva Technology 2025.

EDF (Électricité de France) is recognizing startups that are redefining health and safety in high-risk environments, and has invited Veristart to Paris to meet with EDF and showcase how its access control platform can help make jobsites safer, more secure, and more efficient.

The conference is billed as Europe's biggest startup and tech event that accelerates innovation by connecting startups, tech leaders, major companies, public institutions, and investors responding to our world’s biggest challenges.

Founded by entrepreneurs Craig Hannam, Lou Lawrence and Ajay Pande, Veristart makes technology for creating digital keys to construction equipment, solving the security problem that results because each vehicle of a given model usually has an identical physical key. Operators use their phone to “log in” to equipment, allowing their employers to implement access controls.

Veristart has also been included in trade publication BuiltWorlds’ list of its Top 50 tools and equipment for 2023, and before that, was part of the Spring 2023 cohort of San Francisco construction tech accelerator Formwork Labs, also backed by BuiltWorlds.