Castaway Golf Technologies, a company that grew out of a young boy’s love of retrieving lost golf balls, has won the $287,250 first prize in the 2015 Breakthru competition.
The Fredericton company that is developing an automated system for retrieving, sorting and selling balls lost in water hazards received the news at the Breakthru dinner last night, attended by 540 people.
The first runner-up was Simptek, which is working on home automation systems that save energy. Third place was captured by NB Biomatrix of Saint John, founded by Jeff Jennings and Keith Brunt, who have discovered a nanoparticle solution to remove heavy metals from wastewater. They both received $222,250 in cash and services.
The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, which organized the event, also announced at the dinner that Cathy Simpson, Vice-President Public Sector at T4G, would become the foundation’s new chair. She replaces Bob Hatheway, who had held the position for four years.
Held every second year, Breakthru brings out a new crop of entrepreneurs and introduces them to the fundamentals of growing a business. Calvin Milbury, the CEO of NBIF, noted during the dinner that this year’s event featured an exceptionally strong intake, with 47 companies reaching the stage at which they submitted full business plans.
“We’re very fortunate because we’re going to be looking at a lot of these business plans for consideration for our Startup Investment Fund,” he said. “So this has improved the funnel for NBIF.”
The grand prize winner is a team of contrasting characters that are quickly devising and implementing revenue streams that are growing a solid business. Castaway Golf has devised a mechanized way to retrieve the millions of golf balls that end up in water hazards and then resell them.
It was the brainchild of Matt Vance, a Truro native who invented the first iteration of the device. He teamed up with Josh Ogden, now the company’s CEO, to develop ways to sell the balls and grow the business. They will sell some through the retail chain Giant Tiger beginning this year.
After the win, Ogden was full of praise for the ecosystem that helped the company to win.
“You’ve got a community in New Brunswick that will help anyone,” said Ogden, sitting amid the tables at the emptying Fredericton Convention Centre. “You have to prove you’re coachable. The moment we admitted we didn’t know everything, our business started to move forward.”
The winners will receive a total of $245,000 in cash investments, and the services will bring the total value to $287,250.
Fredericton-based Simptek, which was founded by Keelen Gagnon, Asif Hasan, and Lionel Fernandes, also won the Viewers’ Choice award, voted on by people who viewed CBC news spots on the five finalists. The team will now be flown to Toronto to pitch the product on Dragons’ Den.
There was also a prize for the best video pitch submitted to NBIF as part of the application process. It was captured by Ryan MacDonald, whose team Tempo is developing a music streaming product.
The other two finalists were Fredericton companies that had come together only in the past few months: AutoPulse, founded by Sam Jesso and Kristin Killam, is designing technology that helps auto dealerships monitor their customers’ cars; and Smart Castle Labs, led by Elaheh Biglar and four co-founders, uses sentiment analysis and other functionality to battle cyber-bullying, internet luring and other online evils.
Disclaimer: Entrevestor receives financial support from government agencies that support startup companies in Atlantic Canada. The sponsoring agencies play no role in determining which companies and individuals are featured in this column, nor do they review columns before they are published.
