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The $85K Startup Challenge is an annual competition run by Entré for students at Ara Institute of Technology, The University of Canterbury and Lincoln University. The event sees 20 student-led startup businesses compete for a share of $85,000 worth of prizes over the three month long competition.
Vxt was announced as Grand Winner of the competition last Wednesday, as well as receiving the award for the best business pitch. Along with the awards Vxt received $19,000 worth of prizes to continue to develop their business.
The competition was stiff as evidenced by three teams placing first equal for the first time in the event's history.
Award winners:
First-equal grand winners:
- Vxt – Luke Campbell and Lucy Turner: A smart voicemail driven assistant that converts user's voicemails into text. vxt.co.nz/
- Salty Surf Cams – Jack Andrews: A website where surfers can see the surf conditions of beaches around the country.
- *ILKMYLK – Emma Pickup: Creamy vegan, plant based milk alternative without any harmful ingredients.
Social impact award:
- Yo, Vocal Magazine – Java Katzur
Best pitch:
- Vxt – Luke Campbell and Lucy Turner
People’s choice award:
- Foodies – Charlie Kavanagh
Best report:
- Ticket Ninja – Max Young and Logan Fynn
Business development awards:
- Bare Minimal – Kayla Drummy
- Fruit Slasher (NectAR) – David Huang
- Farm Solutions – James Tyrrell & Bradley Wang
- Foodies – Charlie Kavanagh
- Forget-Me-Not – Kseniia Zagray
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