Start-ups from the University of Toronto won major pitch competitions at the 2018 Ontario Centres of Excellence Discovery conference, an innovation-focused event that draws participants from across the province.
Luna Yu’s startup, Genecis EnviroTech, beat out four other finalists for a $20,000 prize in the social enterprise category. Genesis uses micro-organisms to turn restaurant food waste into biodegradable plastics that can be used to make food containers and 3D printing filament, among other products.
The other $20,000 prize winner was U of T’s Steadiwear, which has developed a tremor-dampening glove for patients with Parkinson’s disease or essential tremor.
“At our stage, all of that money is going to manufacturing,” Mark Elias, Steadiwear’s co-founder and CEO, said in accepting the award at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
