On July 22,2021 at the Extreme Tech Challenge 2021 Global Finals, Dot Inc. and Hillridge Technology were both crowned the 2021 Global Winners. The decision to choose two winners instead of one demonstrates the excellence of the startups competing. Dot Inc. and Hillridge Technology competed under the Enabling Tech and Fintech track respectively and were the category winners in their respective categories.
1. Enabling Tech — Dot Inc is the maker of the first tactile monitor that can enable STEM education, visual works, and games for the 285 million visually impaired people worldwide. Today, Dot is expanding its technologies to help disabled persons access public information in smart cities through barrier-free kiosks and IoT-driven infrastructure.
2. FinTech — Hillridge Technology is on a mission to help farmers mitigate the financial impact of poor weather conditions on their crops or livestock through a weather-based parametric insurance.
The other nine startups of XTC 2021 Global Finals are category and special awards winners that competed with 3,700+ applicants from 92 countries across nine tracks including AgTech & FoodTech; CleanTech & Energy; EdTech; HealthTech; and Mobility & Smart Cities, COVID-19 Innovation Award, Female Founder Award, Ethical AI Award, and the newly launched People’s Choice Award. These winners are:
1. AgTech & FoodTech — Wasteless is a turnkey food waste solution which optimises food price markdowns based on expiry dates. Wasteless has developed a proprietary dynamic pricing algorithm for products with a limited expiration date, allowing retailers to mark down prices across the demand curve.
2. CleanTech & Energy — Mining and Process Solutions (MPS) has developed a non-toxic, natural alternative to cyanide and acid for the extraction of metals in mining operations, seeking to transform the base and precious metals industry by delivering low-cost, energy-efficient and environment-friendly mining methods.
3. EdTech — Testmaster offers highly personalised and effective public education curriculums for matriculation exams in West Africa. Functioning as a digital private tutor in the pocket, Testmaster offers a personalised learning experience for every type of learner.
4. HealthTech — Genetika+ is designing a personalised medical testing tool to boost treatment of depressive disorders by helping physicians find the best drug therapy for their patients. The Genetika+ test uses innovative technology to enable faster treatment, fewer side effects, and lower dosing. It combines genetics, patient history and unique brain biomarkers to help those suffering from depression, thereby helping save patients’ lives, physicians’ time and healthcare costs.
5. Mobility & Smart Cities — Fotokite helps public safety teams save lives with elevated and actionable intelligence with just the push of a button. Fully autonomous and field-proven, Fotokite solutions are equipped with software, heat sensors, cameras and drone delivery systems and are used daily by firefighters and first responders to assess, visualise, and document their incidents within seconds of arriving on scene.
6. COVID-19 Innovation Award — Sunfox a medtech R&D company building smartphone-based portable, minimalistic and affordable cardiac diagnostic tools with cloud-enabled analytics. Its flagship product is the world’s smartest ICU monitor that allows physicians to manage patients remotely in scale.
7. Female Founder Award — The Live Green Co. is building a proprietary technology platform, Charaka, to replace not only the animal but also the synthetic and ultra-processed ingredients in food products with 100% natural, functional and sustainable plant alternatives at ten times R&D speed and savings.
8. Ethical AI Award — Vitalk leverages AI-powered chatbots to make mental healthcare more accessible in Latin America.
9. People’s Choice Award — PathGen Diagnostik Teknologi disrupts the molecular diagnostics market for cancer through inclusive, robust, and affordable platforms. With a strong ecosystem of academic-business-government-community partnership, PathGen seeks to democratize precision medicine, especially in developing countries, and enable molecular diagnostics for all.
Partnership Announcements
At the Global Finals, XTC Co-Founder Young Sohn and Deputy Director-General of the United Nations Beth Bechdol announced a strategic partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to leverage XTC’s pool of transformative startups to improve nutrition and food security worldwide. XTC and UN-FAO have announced the development of the World Food Forum Startup Innovation Awards, powered by XTC to identify contestants who have entered the 2020 and 2021 competitions and that show the greatest potential for advancing our agri-food systems.
XTC Co-Founder Bill Tai also announced a new regional competition track for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to empower underrepresented minority founders. In partnership with Smartpreneur, an entrepreneur development agency, the winners of this new competition track will advance to be global finalists and have the opportunity to compete in the XTC 2022 Global Finals.
