Announcing the Velocity Fund S16 $5K Finalists

This past Wednesday and Thursday, students from across the University of Waterloo participated in the Velocity Fund $5K Qualifiers. Of the 30+ students who pitched their innovative ideas, 10 finalists were selected by a panel of judges to move on and compete at the Velocity Fund Finals on July 21st for their chance to win one of three $5,000 prizes. The $5K competition will start at 11am, and the $25K competition will start at 1pm.

The Velocity Fund Finals $5K competition provides equity-free funding to early-stage startups to help remove some of the barriers that can hinder innovation and entrepreneurial growth. Each participant at the Velocity Fund $5K Qualifiers had exactly 3 minutes on stage to pitch their solution to a real-world problem to a panel of esteemed judges and a packed audience of their peers. The judges provided feedback to each student on their pitching style, as well as valuable insight to help improve their business idea. The best five contenders from each night were selected to move forward.

We are pleased to announce this term’s Velocity Fund $5K finalists:

EloquentSpeaking
EloquentSpeaking enriches lives by improving people’s communications skills, in order to make simple yet powerful communication techniques universally accessible and adopted.

ENVR 
ENVR develops hardware and software which adds a 4D element to virtual and augmented reality.

Gymnatik
Gymnatik provides one day passes to gyms around the world.

Masood Energy Corp.
Masood Energy provides reliable grid level storage by repurposing used electric vehicle batteries. Once electric vehicle batteries reach the end of their lives, they still retain a significant amount of their initial capacity and can be repurposed for stationary energy storage to provide an additional 10 years in secondary use.

MycoCup 
The MycoCup is a sustainable take-out cup made of agricultural waste and mycelium, the roots of fungi. The mycelium creates a polymer that’s durable, hypoallergenic, non-toxic, mold-resistant, and retains more heat than fibreglass. By using this cup, cafes can cut costs, reduce their eco-footprint, and differentiate their brand.

Orbit360
Orbit360 deploys a network of screens inside and outside of vehicles so that companies can advertise themselves to their target customers more efficiently.

Speak!
Speak! is a language teaching tool that simulates real life situations with speech recognition and interactive videos.

Studio Monolith Inc
Studio Monolith is an interdisciplinary digital design practice specializing in interactive media.

Tabnex
Tabnex is an end-to-end job acquisition platform that centralizes all the essential tools into one seamless experience, and designed into a workflow.

The Playful Pixel
The Playful Pixel hosts large group entertainment events that combine the best of theatre, board games, and video games. A small cast of Playful Pixel performers and game technicians guide 50+ player audiences through 3 hours of face-to-face play with a flexible overarching narrative, sensor-enhanced smart props, and handheld mobile devices.

One $5K prize is awarded on the basis of the People’s Choice, so make sure to book it in your calendars and come out to the Velocity Fund Finals on July 21st to cast your vote! Register to attend or join in via livestream for your chance to win 1 of 5 GoPros, just for participating as an audience member! We will also be providing free boxed lunches to the first 200 audience members.

The Spring 2016 Velocity Fund Finals is sponsored by Thomson Reuters and Rockshield Capital.