Photo: PumpUp co-founder Phil Jacobson took first prize in the Ultimate Tech Prize Pitch Competition at BMW Grand River on June 19.
A crowd gathered at BMW Grand River in Kitchener on June 19 to cheer on their favourite companies as they competed in the first Ultimate Tech Prize Pitch Competition.
Chalk, Plum, PumpUp, Structur3D Printing and Videostream competed for a total of $28,000. Teams pitched for five minutes followed by a five-minute question-and-answer period with a panel of judges, including Aterica Health Inc. President and CEO Alex Leyn, and Deloitte’s Jamie Barron and Alexis Hui.
Three out of the five companies took home prizes, and all three are Communitech HYPERDRIVE startups,
PumpUp, an app that promotes “the world’s most inspiring community for healthy and active living,” won the grand prize of $25,000. Structur3d Printing was awarded $2,000 for second place, and Videostream $1,000 for third.
“We were very excited to have won the BMW Grand River competition. The $25,000 grand prize will have a valuable impact on our business,” said Phil Jacobson, co-founder and President of PumpUp. “We're growing quickly and require capital to scale. With the BMW grand prize, we now have additional capital to help grow our business."
Matt Davidson, Manager of Communitech’s Startup Services, said that BMW Grand River is just one example of local companies, tech or otherwise, coming together to support entrepreneurship in Waterloo Region.
“It’s great for the non-tech community to get involved with the tech community here because when the tech community wins, everyone wins.”
