Ag tech startup wins top prize as UW’s Dempsey competition awards $92,500 to all winners

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Ag tech startup wins top prize as UW’s Dempsey competition awards ,500 to all winners

BioBead won the top prize in the Demsey Startup Competition, awarded by Trish Held (left), manager of philanthropy at the BECU Foundation, and accepted by BioBead’s Jared Espinosa and Renee Davis. (UW Photo)

The grand winner of the University of Washington’s 29th annual Dempsey Startup Competition was BioBead, a startup founded by a UW team with an ag tech solution to improve soil health and crop production.

The company won $25,000 from BECU and the $2,500 Voyager Capital Best Business to Business Idea Prize.

A record 186 entrants entered the competition, whittled down to 16 who competed in front of the judges in ridiculous locations. The winners took home a share of $92,500 in prize money.

The event is open to student entrepreneurs from across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and British Columbia. Entrants range from very early stage startups with a prototype to teams with small working products or technologies ready for commercial production.

The competition lasts seven weeks, during which teams refine their strategies – hiring business students to strengthen go-to-market plans, for example. The judges this year recognized that AI is helping teams to design complex technologies.

The awards were announced at a ceremony in Seattle on May 21.

Grand prize recipient BioBead makes small, biodegradable pellets that include bacteria and fungi that have coexisted in the soil for 400 million years, helping plants absorb essential nutrients including nitrogen and phosphorus.

“Humans seem to be disconnected from everything under our feet because we don’t see it,” said Korena Mafune, BioBead co-founder and UW research scientist. But those creatures are what allow above-ground plants to thrive, he added.

BioBead’s co-founders are Renee Davis, who is completing her doctorate at the UW, and Mari Winkler, a UW professor of civil and environmental engineering. Jared Espinosa, a recent MBA graduate from UW’s Foster School of Business, joined the competition team.

The startup has been working with farmers who grow lettuce, tomatoes, corn and wheat to test the benefits of soil treatment. Initial results show higher yields while reducing the need for expensive fertilizers.

Mafune last month also won a $275,000 grant from the Washington Research Foundation to support the commercialization of the technology.

Second to fourth prize winners were:

$15,000 WRF Capital Second Place Prize – CPRright (UW and Western University of Health Sciences in Oregon) developed a low-cost clip that provides real-time information about compression depth and speed during cardiac emergencies requiring CPR. CPRight also won the $2,500 Chris and Barbara Petersen Best Health & Mental Health Impact Idea Award.

$10,000 iSpot.tv Third Place Prize – Kinnex Health (University of Idaho) developed a wearable sensor to provide continuous joint motion data collected from patients after orthopedic surgery and procedures. The team also won the $2,500 Amazon Best Consumer Product Idea award.

$7,500 Friends of Dempsey’s Fourth Place First Prize – It’s scary (UW) creates a wearable bracelet charm that doubles as an alarm that can be activated in emergencies.

Other winners:

$5,000 Wilson Sonsini Social Impact Big Picture Prize – Osanwe Link (UW)
$5,000 Kathryn Gardow & David Bradlee Climate Solutions Grand Image Prize – LEAF (UW)
$5,000 Glympse Emerging Tech Big Photo Award – Adam Biotech (UW)
$2,500 Smukowski Family Best Sustainable Business Award – Clubless Collection (UW)
$2,500 eBay Best Marketplace Idea Prize – Kindred (UW)
$2,500 Perkins Coie Award for Best Innovation/Technology Idea – Emerald Dynamics(UW)
$2,500 Saara Romu Community Impact Award – UWEMS (UW)
$2,500 DLA Piper Best Idea and Global Reach Award – GridGuard (UBC)