2011
Grand Prize: Intimal Solutions
Industry: Life Sciences
Total awards: $20,000
Intimal Solutions is developing a catheter-based technology to treat the valvular pathophysiology of chronic deep venous insufficiency, a disease that causes painful ulcers.
First Place IT & Web: Kopo Kopo
Total awards: $5,000
Kopo Kopo’s mission is to create a simple and accessible way to affordably integrate institutions that serve the poor and mobile money systems.
First Place Products and Services: Axis
Total awards: $5,000
Axis is a sports safety equipment corporation that has developed a proprietary spinal safety vest that protects the spine of participants in high risk sports.
First Place Energy: Imprint Energy
Total awards: $5,000
Imprint Energy is a UC Berkeley spin-out that aims to enable new forms of high performance energy storage using conventional printing equipment.
People's Choice Award: Imprint Energy
Total awards: $5,000
Elevator Pitch Winner: Inserogen
Total awards: $1,000
Inserogen is a biotech company that aims to commercialize SwiftVax, a technology that enables the use of non-transgenic tobacco plants as protein biofactories.
2010
Grand Prize: Orpheus Medical
Industry: Healthcare
Total awards: $20,000
Orpheus Medical has created the first medical device that can painlessly cure hemorrhoids in a single procedure that can be performed by gastroenterologists in their endoscopy suites. It is based on an already proven surgical technique, but is superior because it does not require general anesthesia and does not have the associated risks.
First Place IT & Web: Bidwave
Total awards: $5,000
Bidwave provides a simple platform for effective advertising in social networks. www.thebidwave.com
First Place Products and Services: Brightsense
Total awards: $5,000
BrightSense uses a novel patent-pending drug delivery technology to design customized whitening strips with peroxide dosages optimized for each user’s teeth.
People's Choice Award: Brightsense
Total awards: $5,000
First Place Healthcare: Orpheus Medical
Total awards: $5,000
Elevator Pitch Winner: Emiscape
Total awards: $1,000
Emiscape uses remarkable display technology in which sharp and bright video images appear on one side of a glass surface while the other side remains transparent. www.emiscape.com
2009
First Place: AutoTB
Industry: Healthcare
AutoTB’s device automates sputum microscopy, thereby decreasing analysis time, increasing sensitivity and eliminating human error present in current procedures while integrating into existing infrastructures and remaining affordable for developing countries. www.autotb.com
People's Choice Award: Silicon Biodevices, Inc.
Silicon BioDevices is developing the next generation of high precision diagnostic devices which seamlessly blend into physicians' existing work-flow. www.siliconbiodevices.com
2008
First Place (tie): Implicit Interfaces & Titan Medical
Industry: Web & Healthcare
Implicit Interfaces uses new technology to make shopping for clothes over the internet easier and simulates shopping in a store more closely than current online shopping, with the goal of increasing online apparel sales.
Titan Medical uses nanotechnology to create a precise, low-cost drug treatment, allowing drugs to enter the bloodstream at a steady rate.
Titan Medical has been renamed to Nano Precision Medical.
nanoprecisionmedical.com
People's Choice Award: Glycometrix
Glycometrix offers a new glycan-based blood serum testing for early-stage cancer detection that would dramatically increase positive detection of cancer. www.glycometrix.com
2007
First Place (tie): TubeMogul & Parada Imaging
Industry: Web & Healthcare
TubeMogul is a video advertising and analytics platform that connects advertisers with highly targeted audiences. www.tubemogul.com
Parada Imaging has developed a breakthrough MRI technology, called Pre-polarized MRI (PMRI), which offers the same image quality as the current systems for a fraction of the cost.
People's Choice Award: TubeMogul