The Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship on Thursday handed out $35,000 in prize money to five startups at the 2019 Mel Woodward Cup, with a special emphasis on the MedTech and life sciences space.
The three main winners, each of whom captured $10,000 in development funds as well as in-kind services, are: Duff: Ocean Resources; UnBound Chemicals; and Poly Unity. According to an article in the Memorial University Gazette on Friday, two honourable mention prizes were also awarded.
The Woodward Cup began only three years ago to provide seed funding for student-led businesses, and has become a major event in the St. John’s startup calendar. As well as coverage in the university paper, the pitching competition at the Emera Innovation Exchange on Memorial University’s Signal Hill campus was featured by the CBC.
“What an absolute honour to be apart of the #MelWoodwardCup last night,” tweeted Poly Unity on Friday. “Entrepreneurship is alive and well in NL! Humbled and grateful to have received the top prize, and we have already started the work again!”
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The three winners are:
- Duff: Ocean Resources, Colton Etheridge and Joycelyn Moulton – The company is developing a way to extract chitin – a material with several biotech applications – from the shells of the invasive species green crab. These crabs are affecting biodiversity on North American coastlines, so Etheridge and Moulton have devised a process to make chitin from their shells. Chitin has a range of commercial applications, such as edible films, fertilizers and products that can defend plants against diseases.
- PolyUnity, Michael Bartellas, Travis Pickett, Stephen Ryan, Tahrin Maruf and Marc-André Brien -- PolyUnity uses 3D printers to create high-quality medical simulations and wants to produce these models anywhere in the world. It already has six of these printers set up across Newfoundland and Labrador, said the CBC. The group plans to use the prize money to develop its online database, the PolyBase.
- UnBound Chemicals, Blaine Edwards, Abis Abbas and Gerard Noseworthy – UnBound Chemicals is working on a process to extract substances from unwanted medications and re-use them for research or non-human uses. The company draws chemicals from unused and expired drugs that patients or pharmacies would otherwise discard into a landfill or flush down the toilet. They believe these compounds can be used in such products as veterinarian drugs.
The Gazette said the MCE also awarded two honourable mention prizes: Prospre, led by engineering students Jonathan Young and Colin Hunt, won $3,000; and ECHARGES, founded by Kheya Zaman, Sadman Rhythm, Mohammed Nabeel Hamdan, and Eti-Abbasi Umobong, won $2,000.
Five of the eight finalists in the Woodward Cup received development capital. It capped off a busy academic year for the university’s main entrepreneurship program.
“We’ve had more than 300 students attend at least one of our workshops over the past two semesters, with many of them then approaching us with innovative business ideas,” MCE Director Florian Villaumé told the Gazette. “We’re very encouraged and excited by the growth that’s apparent in the Memorial University entrepreneurial community.”
