A group of four tech startups based out of the University of Waterloo are enjoying healthier bank balances today after the Velocity Venture Fund announced four grants of $25,000.
Blacktree Health, which produces a health monitor wristband that tracks sleep, nutrition and exercise, took home one of the prizes, as did Leafnotes, creator of the Soundbrush app that allows users to ‘draw music’.
Kite, another recipient, has created a method of building and launching apps in the cloud, while Planleaf is an email-based project management suite.
Past winners of the Velocity prize include Bufferbox, an automated self-serve parcel delivery kiosk service, which was acquired by Google (
NASDAQ: GOOG,
Stock Forum) in 2012 for $17 million.
Velocity was created after a $1 million donation by entrepreneur Ted Livingston, CEO of Kik Interactive and a former University of Waterloo alum.
The prize was judged by Livingston, venture capitalists Mike Stork and Karam Nijjar, and tech consultant Cameron Hay.
-Chris Parry, Stockhouse.com