{"id":5781,"date":"2024-04-23T20:11:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T20:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?post_type=purduetoday&p=5781"},"modified":"2024-08-20T12:18:18","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T16:18:18","slug":"purdue-innovates-incubator-awards-18500-in-cash-prizes-to-purdue-student-entrepreneurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2024\/Q2\/purdue-innovates-incubator-awards-18500-in-cash-prizes-to-purdue-student-entrepreneurs","title":{"rendered":"Purdue Innovates Incubator awards $18,500 in cash prizes to Purdue student entrepreneurs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.<\/strong> \u2014 Startup companies led by Purdue University students received a combined $18,500 in cash prizes during the April 18 finals of the\u00a0New Venture Challenge<\/a>, a program led by\u00a0Purdue Innovates Incubator<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justin Renfrow, Incubator director, said participating startups also included students from other universities and Purdue researchers. They crafted a solid value proposition, developed their go-to-market strategy, built out a finance model and more during workshops in late March and early April. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy taking part in the New Venture Challenge, Purdue students and their colleagues have strengthened their commitment to entrepreneurship and bringing solutions to worldwide challenges to the marketplace,\u201d Renfrow said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Submissions for the 2025 New Venture Challenge will begin in January 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winning teams<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The 2024 New Venture Challenge began with 27 startups applying to the program. Five finalists had five minutes to pitch their companies to investors at the Purdue Innovates Startup and Technology Expo<\/a> held in the Purdue Memorial Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First prize and $10,000 went to Emboa Medical, which has developed a novel stroke-treatment catheter for surgeons to increase successful blood clot removal rates in the first attempt and improve patient health outcomes. Emboa Medical also won the Crowd Favorite prize and $1,000. Team members include \u00c1ngel Enr\u00edquez, College of Engineering<\/a>, and Sergio Ruiz, College of Engineering and Graduate School<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEmboa Medical is finalizing the prototype development stage and gearing toward a pivotal preclinical animal study with a works-like\/looks-like prototype of our patent-pending catheter. The $11,000 prize will be used toward efforts in the manufacturing and design optimization of our device,\u201d Enr\u00edquez said. \u201cThe New Venture Challenge and the Purdue Innovates workshops have provided Emboa with a solid foundation. After participating in the Firestarter and Market Readiness programs, our company felt prepared to showcase our technology and deliver a strong pitch. We are grateful and appreciative of the community Purdue Innovates has created to support its startups.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second place and $5,000 were awarded to uChef, a mobile app that offers students the ability to automatically generate personalized meal plans tailored to their budget and culinary preferences, complete with authentic recipes. Team members are Arnaldo Castillo and Luis Paz, both in the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUChef is in current development with plans to launch to the market by May 2024. With this prize money, we will have more money for development, adding features as we adapt to the market after launching,\u201d Paz said. \u201cWe have previously worked with Purdue Innovates, but during these three workshops they taught us how to do a more concise pitch deck and executive summary, which is really valuable for investors. We met great people at the expo who were interested in our startup, and we will continue to work hard in the future to make uChef the best app in the market for international meal planning.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third place and $2,500 were awarded to Maytik, a tech-integrated makeup palette that utilizes haptic and audio feedback to allow blind and visually impaired users to independently differentiate and apply different shades of eye shadow. Team members are Sejal Verma, College of Science<\/a>, and Shreya Rathi, The Ohio State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCurrently, Maytik\u2019s prototype is larger than a regular makeup palette. We will use the prize money to further develop it; by reducing its form factor, the product will be more user-friendly,\u201d Verma said. \u201cThe New Ventures Challenge workshops were educational and informative and allowed me to develop a community of peers that share a like-minded interest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two other companies pitched to investors during the finals: <\/p>\n\n\n\n