IDEABOOST and We Are Wearables have announced the six founders who will go on to pitch at the Female Founders Hardware Cup competition.
Hosted at WWTO’s Women & Wearables event, the six founders will present their startups in front of judges including wearables pioneer, Kate Hartman, and tech blogger Casie Stewart.
The Female Founders Hardware Cup is part of the national Hardware Cup Competition hosted by Pittsburgh-based accelerator Alphagear. Other regional competitions include Osaka and Boston, with planned competitions in India and Israel.
Toronto was the only regional competition which decided to focus entirely on female founders. The winner of the Canadian Cup will be sent to Pittsburgh to compete in the National Cup with other regional winners for $50,000.
The semi-finalists of the Female Founders Hardware Cup include:
- Emily Rudow of Oneiric (Toronto, Ontario): Offers Oneiric Hockey enhanced base layer hockey pants for children to increase protection and safety.
- Ann Poochareon of Little Robot Friends (Toronto, Ontario): Develops programmable robots to teach kids how to code.
- Alex Roeper of Penta Medical (Kitchener, Ontario): Develops a medical wearable Helios which monitors the healing of soft tissues.
- Diane Matays of SportFitz (Waterloo, Ontario): Created a concussion monitoring wearable to keep athletes safe.
- Natalia Mykhaylova from WeavAir (Toronto, Ontario): Developed functional, modular fabrics and accessories that monitor, purify and condition the air.
- Krissy White of Zero Infinity (Wakefield, Quebec): Create mixed reality entertainment experiences.
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