Entrepreneur Programme, Velocity, Announce Challenge Qualifiers

Velocity, New Zealand’s leading entrepreneur program, has announced the qualifying start-up teams for their $100,000 challenge.

Start-up hopefuls, local businesses and judges gathered at the University of Auckland Business School last week to find out which of the Velocity participants qualify for the $100,000 Challenge.

Velocity is New Zealand’s leading entrepreneurship program and has been running for 14 years. Since its inception, the program has helped start over 120 new ventures, attract over $220 million in investments and create over 460 jobs in 35 countries.

The Innovation Challenge qualifiers night guest speaker was Auckland’s very own entrepreneur, Deanna Yang from Moustache Milk and Cookie Bar, who shared her experiences of becoming an entrepreneur.

Opening her very first milk and cookie bar at 22 years old, Moustache became a hit across the city. What’s more Deanna only uses high quality, free range and organic products, ensuring her food is not only delicious, but ethical.

Without further ado, we are pleased to announce that the Velocity Innovation Challenge qualifiers for 2017:

Suture Future – A suturing device to improve speed and precision to help save lives and reduce healthcare costs.

Riaka – Fashionable and functional shoes that don’t compromise the wearer’s independence.

Invoke – Augmented reality experiential device.

Brightenz – Glow in the dark paint that’s safe and ecofriendly.

SENS – A cloud-based, comprehensive, learning readiness assessment for children to help build positive learning outcomes at each stage of their school journey.

AgentME – An online talent portal connecting talent and brand campaign managers.

Ocrei – An all-in-one solution to simplify splitting bill payments between individuals.

Care Aid – A device that enables discrete and confidential STI self-testing.

Kara Education – An online education platform for children with hearing difficulties.

STOP TM System for Smart Sewers – A system designed to detect build-ups in sewer networks by providing insight and data profiling previously not possible using conventional methods.

Diabetes Screening App – Diabetes screening app.

Honey Signatures for Classification – A new standard in honey assessment based on spectral signatures which accommodates drawbacks of common physical and chemical assessment.

WiCaps – A wireless power transfer solution for implantable biomedical devices utilising Capacitive Power Transfer technology (CPT).

Green Reinforcement – A joint venture company which manufactures the first generation of high-performing steel fibres as a viable alternative to conventional building materials.

MicroVision – A camera system that analyses the impact and behaviour of forces on mechanical structures creating data that can be used to create better and longer-lasting structures.

Congratulations to everyone who qualified for the Innovation Challenge. We look forward to seeing these ideas progress and seeing the winners announced at the end of the year.

More information on the Velocity program can be found on their website.