Five startups will take the stage Thursday, October 29, at the Tech419 Pitch Competition, Northwest Ohio’s premier innovation and entrepreneurship showcase, hosted by The University of Toledo Business Incubator on the university’s Main Campus.
The free, public event begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Nitschke Technology Commercialization Complex. Finalists will compete for more than $20,000 in funding and prizes in front of a panel of judges drawn from venture capital, industry and state economic development programs.
Three of this year’s five ventures have direct connections to UToledo, and the field spans healthcare, manufacturing, facility operations and space research. Altered Gravity, co-founded by associate professor of bioengineering Dr. Eda Yildirim-Ayan, recreates lunar, Martian and orbital gravity environments in the lab so researchers can study disease, drug efficacy and tissue regeneration without costly space launches.
Two of the ventures aim at hospital and factory floors. Ossatura Labs, co-founded by M.D./Ph.D. student Yogesh Kumaran, builds 3D biomechanical models of a patient’s fracture from diagnostic imaging so orthopaedic trauma surgeons can compare fixation options before surgery, while Surgiplate, from graduate student Shawn Monteiro, is a plate-and-strap surgical fixation platform for the hand and other joints. Echo uses QR-code placards so anyone can report a facility maintenance problem without an app, and ILUminate replaces the spreadsheets manufacturers use to track operator skills with a live, auditable skills matrix.
“Tech419 gives founders an opportunity to put their ideas in front of the people who can help move them forward,” said Pamela Moore, the incubator’s director of incubation and business operations. “Whether that leads to a new customer relationship or an investor conversation, those connections can play an important role in a company’s growth.”
The judging panel consists of Abel Castillo of JumpStart Inc., Mikayla Coen of L3Harris, Anthony Gillespie of Parallax Advanced Research, Katherine Pollard of the University of Michigan and Joseph Scott of the Ohio APEX Accelerator. All five competitors are invited to join the UToledo Business Incubator program, which provides mentorship, affordable office and lab space and access to funding opportunities.
Seating is limited and registration is required; parking is free. For Northwest Ohio’s startup community, Thursday’s pitches are both a contest and a roll call — a snapshot of the medical-device, manufacturing-software and space-research ideas now working their way out of Toledo laboratories and toward the market.
Photo: MrJacon000, CC BY-SA 4.0