UW entrepreneurs finalists in global competition
Beat out nearly 50,000 others for spot in final
WATERLOO — A University of Waterloo team of student entrepreneurs beat out nearly 50,000 competitors from universities around the world for a spot in the final round of the largest student competition for social enterprises.
Waterloo startup Epoch, represented by students Jade Choy, Keith Choy, Lisa Tran and Kaivalya Gandhi, ranked among the top six teams in the $1-million Hult Prize Challenge in New York on the weekend.
“It’s been an incredible journey and we’re excited to continue on with our work,” Jade Choy said Tuesday from New York.
Each year, a critical social problem is chosen and teams from around the world create an innovative social enterprise to address the issue. This year’s challenge is focused on refugees, and restoring the rights and dignity of people forced to migrate.
The Waterloo team created a mobile marketplace to better connect refugees to the community and the services they need. The platform allows people to trade their skills for services they need using a time credit system, where a person gets credited for the amount of time spent helping someone and they can use that for a service they need.
After the six teams presented their product at the United Nations headquarters on Saturday, the winner was announced by former U.S. president Bill Clinton.
Choy said the Waterloo team made incredible connections and got invaluable input through the competition, and that will help shape the platform to best help refugees.
“We’re really able to focus,” she said. “I think we’re going to keep up this momentum and continue doing the work we’ve been doing.”
Before reaching the Hult finals in New York, the team won UW’s Hult Prize competition in February, a regional final in London, England, in March, and participated in an incubator with the other finalists in Boston this summer.
“It’s been great learning from everyone,” Choy said.
Now after time in the United States and Europe testing their prototype, it’s time to come home to Waterloo to continue developing the platform. The winning team from Rutgers University started a company called Roshni Rides that is developing a transportation network solution that provides accessible, affordable and reliable public transportation for informal settlements in South Asia.