Twenty-four years ago, the New Venture Championship (NVC) became one of the first graduate investment competitions in the United States. In its first year, teams from only three schools competed: University of Oregon, Oregon State University, and Portland State University.
These days, the highly regarded competition—which takes place in Portland each year—draws competitors from around the world. Underlining the competition's global status is the fact that 2015 marks the third year in a row that a team from Thailand has won first place. This year NVC took place April 9-11, 2015, in Portland, Oregon, and the winning team—Ecogent, whose core product is an innovative formaldehyde-free adhesive for wood products—hails from Thammasat University. With this win, Ecogent has secured a berth at this year's Global Venture Labs Investment Competition at the University of Texas in Austin and will also walk away with the hefty sum of $25,000.
Placing second was another Thai team, Eden Fresh Fruit Solutions from Sasin University, which received $10,000 for their endeavor, a product that aims to extend the shelf life of fresh fruit.
For participating teams, simply being selected to compete in NVC counts as an honor. This year, nearly 60 teams from around the globe applied to be one of 16 teams at the 2015 event. NVC is hosted and coordinated by the college's Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship and is an important stop on the international investment competition circuit.
What makes NVC stand out among other competitions? The incomparable feedback teams receive from our outstanding judges.
“The quality of judges is our hallmark—and something other competitions envy and try to emulate," said John Hull, executive director of the Lundquist College's Business Innovation Institute and assistant dean for centers of excellence.
| First place: | Ecogent, Thammasat University |
|---|---|
| Second place: | Eden Fresh Fruit Solutions, Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration |
| Finalist runners up: | Inscope Medical, University of Louisville UroProx, Northwestern University |
Competitors
The following is a list of teams that competed in NVC in 2015.
AirFit
University of Oregon
Traveling by air used to be a fun, glamorous, and anticipated occasion but has since taken a turn for the worse due to long TSA lines, uncomfortable seats, extensive delays, and limited concession options. AirFit’s mission is to remedy cramped muscles and exhausted senses by delivering exercise facilities in a rejuvenating and calming environment. Our gym and shower facilities, located behind security at major airports (and accessible through daily, monthly, and annual passes), provide a unique place of respite to work up a sweat, rinse off, and refuel before the next flight. By alleviating major pain-points of modern day airports, AirFit will tap into new markets with its blue ocean strategy of the “airport gym” concept.
Akabotics
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Current waterway maintenance dredging practices involve excessive amounts of human and machine resources, resulting in an extremely high price tag. As such, Akabotics has designed the Microdredger™ to address this problem. The Microdredger™ is a robotic system that can offer continuous maintenance dredging of waterways at a dramatically lower cost to the customer. Its small size and autonomous operation allow for the maintenance dredging market to be expanded to included waterways that were previously not cost effective to dredge due to their size or location. Its simple design and operation will transform the way maintenance dredging is done. This is like the Roomba® for waterways.
Allview Infomatics
University of Manitoba
Using existing infrastructure the Selective Video Summary and Interaction Tool (sViSIT) captures customer behavior anonymously. Customer patterns are then aggregated into metadata, providing insight into customer traffic, dwelling, queue monitoring and location patterns. Reports are generated to provide insight into the customer interaction with the retail environment. This information can then be utilized to improve the store layout or to evaluate various promotions etc.
BioBridge
University of Arkansas
The biospecimen industry is fragmented and lacks a central exchange, delaying valuable medical research. BioBridge was created to provide an online marketplace where specimen providers and medical specialists can list, locate, and purchase specimens for research.
Ecogent
Thammasat University
Ecogent is the cutting-edge formaldehyde-free adhesive that satisfies both regulatory and manufacturing requirements. Operationally tested by Vanachai Group, one of Asia’s largest wood-based panel manufacturer, Ecogent helps wood-based panel manufacturer save up to 15 percent of their production cost.
Eden Fresh Fruit Solution
Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University
EDEN is the fruit solution company. We hold a globally exclusive license from Chulalongkorn University Intellectual Property Institute, IP Owner, which allow us to produce and sale ”Naturen,” 100% natural edible coating solution, globally. Naturen™ is an edible, biodegradable fruit-coating solution product composed of 100% natural, FDA-approved ingredients and is Halal-certified. While fruit-filming technology is applicable to fruit’s exterior exist in abundance, Naturen™ is the only available product that can be sprayed directly onto fresh-cut fruits to lengthen their consumable life by at least 250%, or 15 days. Naturen™ does this by effectively reducing the respiration rate of fruits by regulating the ripening process.
Inscope Medical Solutions
University of Louisville
Inscope Medical Solutions’ OneScope solves a critical clinical problem for healthcare providers in emergency and pre-hospital situations as well as planned surgeries. The OneScope’s patent-pending design optimizes airway intubation by combining multiple tools into one easy-to-use, elegant solution. Whether in ambulances, surgical centers, emergency rooms, or operating rooms the OneScope device will reduce physician stress, patient risk, and hospital costs. Inscope Medical’s management team will use its unique skill set, including over 35 years combined experience in the healthcare industry, to bring the OneScope to market.
Luminostics, Inc.
University of Houston
Luminostics, Inc. is developing smartphone-based rapid medical diagnostics, with the vision of empowering healthcare providers and consumers against critical diseases by bringing the medical testing laboratory to the smartphone. Luminostics’ platform LumiTect technology is based on the use of unique and proprietary light-emitting nanoparticles, called “nanophosphors”, which can be easily detected using a smartphone camera upon excitation with the phone’s flash. The first product using this technology, LumiTect-CT, will satisfy the unmet need for a rapid, point-of-care test detecting Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), the causative bacteria of Chlamydia, a mostly asymptomatic and potentially devastating sexually transmitted disease (STD) that affects an estimated 3 million people in the US each year.
MarsMedical
Johns Hopkins University
MarsMedical is developing DrinkSync: a wearable device that monitors fluid status to prevent deadly fluid overload in dialysis and congestive heart failure patients. Our technology allows these patients to view their fluid status at home to enable them to manage their own health. Doctors and case managers also have access to this information to tailor diet and medication regimens to each patient. Simple and intuitive, our system gives patients an unprecedented understanding of their health to empower them to self-manage their conditions at home.
Nomzi
University of Texas at Austin
Nomzii makes eating healthy simple. Our mobile app and web marketplace connects busy professionals with local chefs and delivers custom portioned ready-to-eat meals to their place of work – think Uber for chefs. Nomzii’s objective is to breakdown the barriers to eating healthy by integrating technology, nutrition, and culinary expertise. We differentiate ourselves through convenience, personalization, and flavor.
Radventure
Portland State University
Radventure is a peer-to-peer marketplace that connects adventure travelers with local guides to discover a new destination like a local. Radventure uses a service platform similar to Airbnb and Uber where adventurers browse available guides based on location and activity. The website and mobile app will allow guides and travelers to create profiles, communicate, agree to services and payment, and post reviews after experiencing an incredible adventure.
RainDance Recovery
University of Michigan
RainDance Recovery is a cleantech company that improves the efficiency of water use and increases social and environmental sustainability within oil and gas operations. Our technology recycles produced water, which is water removed from underground reservoirs as a natural byproduct of oil and gas production. With one unit, we enable oil producers to become water producers.
Sotrek
Brigham Young University
Sotrek is (1) a cloud-based suite of tools that enables recreational rental shops to manage their shops more efficiently, and (2) an online marketplace where renters can find, book, and enjoy recreational equipment.
Touchrail
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Touchtrail helps game developers maximize user engagement and customer lifetime value by providing advanced predictive and prescriptive data analytics. Touchtrail’s unique value proposition is an integrated solution for dynamic pricing of in-app purchases (IAP). Touchtrail offers a simple, affordable yet effective way for game studios to leverage their data to optimize the financial performance of their games.
UroProx
Northwestern University
UroProx is a surgical proximity sensing system designed to dramatically reduce the rate of injury during pelvic and abdominal surgery, by allowing surgeons to precisely localize and avoid vital structures such as the ureter intraoperatively. The objective of our venture is to deliver a surgical solution that prevents accidental surgical injury in a manner that integrates with current surgical practices, is intuitive for the surgeon, preserves the anatomy, and is cost-effective.
Viapore
Georgia Institute of Technology
Viapore was founded to address unmet clinical needs in spinal fusion implants. Though the industry is crowded, our device provides superior fusion, an advantage that addresses the critical problem of poor bone integration with PEEK implants. Viapore’s path forward, after patent protection and FDA approval, will be to use a small group of surgeons to implant the first-in-man devices and market our implant’s effectiveness. We also plan to expand our platform technology to other applications through both internal development and licensing opportunities. We exist to develop truly innovative orthopedic implants that provide improved patient outcomes at an overall lower cost.