BRAMPTON, ON – In an exciting and intense 54 hours this past weekend, eight businesses went from concept to potential commercialization at Brampton City Hall.

The City of Brampton and the Brampton Entrepreneur Centre, in partnership with Startup Peel, hosted the Peel Region Internet of Things (IoT) Techstars Global Startup Weekend 2018 from November 2-4, where over 100 designers, developers, marketers and entrepreneurs – more than half of them from Brampton - came together to share ideas, form teams and create tech startups.

Twenty-four innovative individuals from across Peel Region kicked off the weekend by pitching their business ideas to a panel of judges. Eight of those ideas were selected, and participants, coaches and mentors collaborated around them over the weekend, aiming to turn initial business ideas into Minimum Viable Products (MVP) and services.

A major highlight from the weekend was when renowned entrepreneur Nicole Verkindt, Founder of Offset Market Exchange (OMX) and the newest “Dragon” on CBC’s Next Gen Den spoke about the importance of innovation on pitch night. Verkindt was joined by Financial Services Executive and Advisor for Startups Preeti Malik, Founder and Catalyst Bryan Li and Founder of Purposeful Selling Jean Nickerson to judge the business concepts generated over the weekend.

On Sunday night, three winning pitches were selected. Winners received cash prizes totaling $10,000 to help launch their businesses, packages of goods and services including business coaching, print services, memberships and gift cards to support business launch and growth.

First place: beep

Several Brampton residents were part of the winning team that built a fully operational smart alarm clock prototype that utilizes IoT technology. The goal? To physically wake the sleeper and get them out of bed, ensuring you wake up on time, the first time, every time.

The team included Parmveer Bola, Priyadarshini Saha, Jacqueline Truong, Muqeeth Khan and Rome Ramos. Fun fact: two of these five team members are under 14 years old.

Second place: Ü-track
Building on the popularity of on-demand services, Ü-track is an application that gives transit users the power to track and be notified of transit information in real-time. That includes the whereabouts, and capacity of specific buses. The app aims to empower transit users to make more informed decisions when it comes their commute.

The group included Abhay Randhawa, Aaraya Aad, Edmond Lam, Jacob Meksavanh and Nathan Coulas

Third place: StoAR
Building on the popularity of virtual and augmented reality, StoAR is a simple tool for small- and medium-sized enterprises to showcase their products via an augmented reality platform. Think of StoAR like a personal shopper – the app uses augmented reality to provide shoppers with information about products they might want to purchase while virtually browsing the shelves of a retail store or restaurant menu.

Team members included Martina Simmonds, Param Thakkar, Chris Ujimoto, Kaarthick Rameskumar, Shangheethan Prabaharan and Emad Ali.

Quotes

“Techstars Startup Weekend was a huge success in Brampton this year. Several entrepreneurs were inspired to take their businesses to the next level, connect with coaches and mentors and ultimately become a part of Brampton’s energetic entrepreneurial community.”
- Councillor Jeff Bowman, Economic Development Chair

“The hardest part of starting up is starting out. Techstars Startup Weekends provide participants with the safe space, opportunity and mentorship from industry leaders to take an idea to MVP.  Many companies we use today were founded at a Techstars Startup Weekend.”
- Melloney Campbell, Community Leader, Startup Peel

-30-

About Techstars Startup Weekend
Techstars Startup Weekend is a 54-hour event where attendees learn how to build a company in a weekend. Since 2007, Techstars Startup Weekend has taken place in over 150 countries with more than 200,000 alumni. Participants take their product or business idea to the next level and join in a huge worldwide network of entrepreneurs.