Announcing the Velocity Fund W17 $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 March 30th for their chance to win one of three $5,000 prizes. The $5K competition will start at 11am, and the $25K competition, where an additional 10 teams will compete for $115,000 in prizes, 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 contenders from each night were selected to move forward.

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

ENVR
ENVR provides tactile feedback for your virtual reality experience.

Kinetic Imaging
Kinetic Imaging creates high-speed video using a novel technique involving multiple low-cost, high speed cameras to produce a system that can achieve greater performance at a fraction of the cost.

Para
Para is a cloud-based application that guides adults in creating a comprehensive estate and end-of-life plan. Users document their wishes and personal information in one place, eliminating paper files, and allowing them to share their information with people of their choosing.

rePUBLIC
rePUBLIC connects the Internet of things to public spaces. Users bring their personality into public spaces through an app that allows them to interact with wi-fi enabled art installations, in real time.

Rugelach, Roswell and Rufus
Rugelach, Roswell and Rufus has created a novel EMS spine board to more accurately weigh children in paediatric emergencies, and provide information on drug dosage/voltage for resuscitation.

ShiftRide
ShiftRide is a car sharing platform allowing people to rent a car from other people nearby.

Six Club
Six Club is a personal styling service for men. Users have style consultations via Facebook Messenger chat, and are shipped recommendations. You pay for what you keep, and ship back the rest for free.

Vena Medical
Vena Medical is creating an endoscope to provide a real-time navigational perspective for physicians, to make interventional procedures faster, easier, and safer for both patients and physicians.

WeBahn
WeBahn provides up-to-date, real-time information about public transportation in developing countries, where buses are not equipped with GPS systems, to provide reliable information to commuters.

WildType Biotech
WildType Biotech uses protein design technology to redesign and optimize commercial proteins at the molecular level, enhancing clinical effectiveness and making them cheaper to produce and easier to store.

The competition is intense, so come out to the Velocity Fund Finals on March 30th to hear some great pitches! Register to attend or join in via livestream for your chance to win 1 of 5 UE Boom Bluetooth Speakers! We will also be providing free boxed lunches to the first 200 audience members.

The Winter 2017 Velocity Fund Finals is sponsored by Thomson Reuters and Sequoia. 

Thomson Reuters provides professionals with the intelligence, technology and human expertise they need to find trusted answers in the financial and risk, legal, tax and accounting, and media markets. The new Thomson Reuters Toronto Technology Centre will create 1,500 high-quality technology jobs in Canada and accelerate research for cognitive computing, visualization, UX, and cloud development.