As Startupfest 2024 draws to a close, five startups are walking away with a collective $785,000 in potential investment.
The festival officially wrapped its 14th year in Montréal’s Grand Quay. This year’s Startupfest convened founders, investors, tech workers, and ecosystem champions from across the country for three days of networking, panels, and presentations.
As in years past, this year’s Startupfest hosted a total of eight pitch competitions.
“This is shocking and unbelievable. We did not expect to win today.”
Diana Virgovicova, Xatoms
Aside from the Best of the Fest prize, the event also handed out dedicated awards for entrepreneurs who identify as women, Black, 2SLGBTQIA+, as well as a student investment prize, an impact grant, an audience choice award, and of course, the highly popular grandmother’s choice award.
In addition to securing investment, this year’s winning startups are also getting a $5000 Emerging Companies Package, courtesy of business law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. That six-month package includes ad-hoc legal advice, as well as services and documents to ensure the startups are prepared for future financing.
Xatoms takes home $250,000
Xatoms won big at this year’s festival, securing not one… not two… but three prizes, including the Best of the Fest prize, the Women in Tech investment prize, and the Front Row Ventures student entrepreneur prize.
Best of Fest, considered the most coveted prize at Startupfest, brings together a team of angel investors to award one startup with a $100,000 investment in the form of a convertible note. Through the Women in Tech competition, The Firehood convenes a team of angel investors who will award one female-led startup with a $100,000 investment.
The Student Entrepreneur prize awards $50,000 to a startup with at least one co-founder currently enrolled at a Canadian university or who has graduated no longer than six months ago.
The startup, founded by CEO Diana Virgovicova, is looking to use quantum chemistry and artificial intelligence (AI) to clean the world’s most precious resource: water. Xatoms and its founder are certainly not new to accolades. Virgovicova spoke with BetaKit in-depth about her startup and story earlier this year.
“This is shocking and unbelievable. We did not expect to win today,” Virgovicova told BetaKit after the event.
“We are especially happy that there are people who believe in our solution, believe in the problem, and believe in the impact we can potentially make,” added Xatoms COO Shirley Zhong.
The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) has offered to match Xatoms’ winnings, which, if accepted, would bring the startup’s total prize money from Startupfest to an eye-watering $500,000.
Juno wins Black Entrepreneur Investment Prize, audience choice
Montréal-based healthtech startup Juno secured the Black Entrepreneur Investment Prize. Sponsored by Rep Matters, the Black Entrepreneurship Investment Prize will bring together up to 10 angel investors ready to invest $100,000 in a Black-led startup. Juno, founded in 2022, is developing a compact, discreet and wearable device that alleviates menstrual pain quickly.
Juno might walk with more than $100,000, though. BDC has also offered to make a matching, which, if accepted, would bring the startup’s total Startupfest winnings to $200,000.
Juno also managed to snag the Audience Choice awards at Startupfest’s closing ceremony. This non-monetary award goes to the best pitch out of the winners of Startupfest’s investment prizes.
Bindr snags 2SLGBTQIA+ investment prize
Offered in partnership with QueerTech, the inaugural 2SLGBTQIA+ prize awards $60,000 from up to 10 angel investors to a startup whose most senior member identifies as part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. This year’s winner was Bindr, a label-free dating platform that doesn’t require a sexual orientation selection.
Impact grant goes to Panorama
The $25,000 impact grant, presented by Fonds de solidarité FTQ, is open to startups that are incorporated and headquartered in Québec that can demonstrate their positioning as impact-driven, meaning they aim for both financial performance and positive impact on the environment or society.
This year’s winner was Montréal-based governance software startup Panorama, which offers a platform to improve the decision-making on boards by automating governance best practices.
PakVille steals the show with grandmothers’ choice award
A beloved tradition at Startupfest and one of its most popular contests, the grandmothers’ choice award offers entrepreneurs the unique opportunity to pitch their ideas to a panel of grandmothers. While the prize is non-monetary, the true reward lies in the invaluable feedback and the bragging rights that come with winning this accolade.
Montréal-based PakVille won the hearts of this year’s grandmothers. The startup designs and develops modular spaces in easy-to-assemble units made from recycled plastic bottles.
Feature image courtesy Douglas Soltys for BetaKit. Juno image courtesy Startupfest.
