The semi-finalists for the TEC VenturePrize Fast Growth and Student Competitions have been narrowed down to the top three in each category. These Alberta finalists will show their entrepreneurial muscles at the ‘Olympic’ business plan event, TEC Edmonton's VenturePrize Awards Luncheon. Although all finalists are competing for the Grand Prize, only one team will go home with the gold.
Get your tickets today to see these finalists compete on April 15, 2010.
Fast Growth Finalists
Biolithic has developed a revolutionary rapid diagnostic device that enables consumers and healthcare professionals to rapidly confirm an infection, offering the opportunity to globally save millions of lives, hundreds of billions in healthcare costs, and prevent the spread of disease. Contact: Maziyar Khorasani
Darkhorse Emergency Services, a division of Darkhorse Analytics Inc., is an emergency services software developer and consultant. Darkhorse brings the latest academic research to the emergency services planning process, to create tools that are so simple for managers to use that they don't need an analyst. The company was spun out of the Centre for Excellence in Operations at the University of Alberta, one of the premier emergency services research centres in the world. Contact: Dan Haight
Firenest Innovations Inc. is a software startup that provides powerful online tools for the underserved market of small to medium nonprofits in Canada and the U.S. Founded by engineering graduates from the University of Alberta with tech backgrounds from Boston, Waterloo, and Silicon Valley, Firenest connects nonprofits with their directors, volunteers, and staff through a simple, secure, online portal. Contact: Eugene Chen
Student Finalists
Alberta Carbon - Petroleum coke is an abundant by-product of oil sands upgrading and is currently being stockpiled in Northern Alberta since it has almost no commercial value. Alberta Carbon’s business will be to process petroleum coke using microwave technology and turn it into activated carbon. Our product, activated carbon, is a high demand resource that is used in water treatment, air purification and many other diverse industries. Tristan Willson – University of Alberta
E² Technologies - For several decades the micro and nano technology industry has grown at an accelerated rate; however, the high cost of equipment associated with this industry has limited its potential growth. More specifically, the photolithography process, which is frequently used to construct micro and nano technology, requires a cleanroom to house four pieces of equipments that can easily cost over a million to a few million dollars. E² Technologies reduces the cost of these cleanrooms to under a million dollars. By combining the four pieces of equipments required into one system, not only will this reduce the equipment cost it will also reduce the cost of space required within the cleanrooms. Furthermore, E² Technologies’ solution will automate the photolithography process. Tom Tran – University of Alberta
Molecular Tetris Inc. goal is to become one of the first players on the nascent market, helping Canada take a step forward in productivity gains through innovation. The emerging niche in the field of interdisciplinary modeling and simulation services for Research and Development has application in such industries as Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and Materials Design. Molecular Tetris key driver is to provide rational experiments for our customers and thus help them to reduce significantly production / process development costs. The unique feature of Molecular Tetris, Inc. is the application of innovative multiple scales (from nanoscales and up) to the problems of industrial importance and practical interest. The methods used in multiscale modeling and simulation are versatile, inexpensive, accurate, informative, fast and repeatable, without special equipment needs. Svetlana Sapelnikova – University of Alberta