The University of Toronto revealed the winners of its Hatchery Demo Day, the University’s innovation hub dedicated to helping students build and commercialize products.
The University of Toronto reported that the finalists were selected out of 30 teams. Four startups took home a total of $42,500 in seed funding, including one $20,000 grand prize and two $10,000 runner-up prizes. There was also a $2,500 Orozco prize raised by students themselves.
The $20,000 grand prize went to Grid, which is building technology to help track available parking spaces using wide angle cameras and image recognition technology.
“It feels amazing to win,” Muhammad Sheikh, co-founder of Grid, told the University of Toronto. “The Hatchery is a great place for anyone who is starting out as an entrepreneur. They give you all of the support to allow your business to succeed, whether it’s encouraging you to go out and validate your idea and find out if you have a market, or having mentors and professors giving you advice and critiques — all of that has actually shaped our business approach.”
The $10,000 runner-up prizes winners included Voco, which allows content creators to easily upload content to smart speakers, and Knowtworthy, which provides real-time automated transcription of meeting minutes and action items that can be linked to employees’ calendars. Zeroth Responders, which connects 911 dispatchers to the nearest volunteers with first aid and CPR certification, received the $2,500 Orozco prize.
Photo credit Ben Ouyang.
