The Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre (DDQIC) held their annual summer pitch competition in the Mitchell Hall atrium on Aug. 18.
The DDQIC pitch competition provides opportunities for early-stage start-ups to win seed funding and gain access to the mentors and DDQIC provides. Venture teams from across the world competed for a prize pool of $100,000.
Bruna Guarino Moraes, program coordinator, told The Journal the competition was hosted in-person for the first time in two years. Viewers could watch the event online via live-stream, sponsored by the City of Kingston.
This year marks DDQIC’s 10-year anniversary. Moraes said the team celebrated “10 years of innovation.”
Participants also had the opportunity to win non-dilutive seed funding of up to $30,000.
“I’ve been working closely with founders over the past five years to help [teams] launch their ventures and innovation and entrepreneurship at Queen’s, in the Kingston community, and more recently, globally,” Joanna Tinus, program and community manager, told The Journal.
“Our mandate is to catalyze potential among people who have a propensity to have an impact, whether that be socially or economically.”
The judges saw a “very broad” range of ventures, Tinus added. There were both early-stage and late-stage ventures present, and the industry varied across the board. When the judges deliberated, they looked for a venture that would have a substantial impact on the community, Tinus said.
“CO2L Tech really came to the top for all the judges. It was a unanimous decision. They’re pitch was excellent, and they were able to convey this scientific, engineering-heavy, solution in such a compelling way.”
The winning teams were CO2L Tech, DMB Translation Services, and Strictly Diabetic. They described their goals and visions in interviews with The Journal.
CO2L Tech
Anh Tran-Ly and Tu Nguyen, co-founders of CO2L Tech, explained their use of science to innovate and create. CO2L Tech’s platform allows for the recycling and conversion of carbon from CO2 emissions into “valuable organic compounds.”
“It would be a waste if [science] was just on paper for publication, so we bring it beyond the lab-bench and apply it so we can make a company of it, and so people can benefit from it,” Tran-Ly said.
“There are few people in the world that can do this, and we are a strong team. We now have professor Dr. Cao-Thang Dinh [on our team] who is a top chemist and engineer,” Nguyen added. Besides the technology, CO2L Tech has a team working on the business side.
“[Tran-Ly] knows both sides—the science and the business—and we have the from alumni from the Smith School of Business,” Nguyen said.
DMB Translation Services
Bayega Joan Emmily, co-founder and project manager at DMB Translation Services, spoke about the competition’s seed funding aspect. DMB Translation Services utilizes language translation software to help people with disabilities who are hard of hearing navigate everyday life.
“Currently, our business is in the developing stage of our product, which is our language interpreter. The seed funding will help us go from our prototype phase to the piloting phase where we can try out our application in real life,” Emmily said.
“There was a lot of knowledge that was given to us [in the competition], and we really had to show we were applying it to our start-ups.”
The competition takes a lot of time and effort, but is worthwhile for anyone who wants to kickstart their venture, Emmily added.
Strictly Diabetic
Fadzai Muramba, co-founder of Strictly Diabetic, spoke about the direction she sees her venture going in the future. Strictly Diabetic helps patients with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar levels at low cost.
“With the money we’ve received, we want to start a physical diabetic centre. A place where diabetics can come and seek medical advice, as well as diet and lifestyle advice, from medical practitioners,” Muramba said.
Muramba wants to expand her venture to major cities to connect patients who have diabetes with resources, so they’re not restricted to a few locations providing care.
“I would like to develop an app or community platform where people can interact with each other, do life with each other, learn tips and recipes, and receive specialist advice.”
In the next five years, Muramba wants to increase the number of people and physical locations Strictly Diabetic reaches.
“Expanding marketing, advertising, and strategies to connect with people in remote areas is very important.”
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