Flixel, HelloMD and YouCollab win Startupfest Investment Prize
Three startups are walking away from Montreal’s annual Startupfest with newfound hope and investment.
The top prize of a $160,000 investment from 14 investor-judges went to Flixel while the second place prize of a $50,000 investment went to HelloMD.
Flixel is a Toronto-based startup that created the wildly popular Cinemagraph Pro app. Cinemagraph Pro makes creation “super-easy and fast,” where users import a video, select a still frame and paint motion directly on the screen. Users can export in broadcast quality or upload to flixel.com and easily share with the world. The startup won a 2014 Apple Design Award.
HelloMD is a San Francisco-based startup specializing in digital healthcare for marijuana patients who can get their medical cannabis card online without visiting a doctors office. While $200,000 was originally up for grabs for one startup, Startupfest founder Phil Telio made it clear that the prize could be split up if two startups were deserving. It looks like that’s what happened here.
Something else out of the ordinary happened at Startupfest as well. Evidently spurred by a charismatic younger entrepreneur, six investor-judges decided to invest in one more company.
YouCollab was awarded an “honorary” $35,000 investment. The Toronto-based startup created an application that connects YouTube creators looking to collaborate based on their interests, size of the channel and more.
“Six of us pitched our money together for an additional $35,000,” said Telio. “We had so many pitches that we liked but the spirit of this additional kid made us put in more money, so in the moment we did it. We liked him and we want to work with him more.”
And just like that, Startupfest’s grand prize has now gone up to $245,000 in total. “In the process we had such great quality startups pitching us” said Telio.
https://twitter.com/sunil_extreme/status/754075996874240001
Constantly feeling very happy to have the job that I do #Startupfest- always fun to give $200k pic.twitter.com/LXqR1EEHwd
— Katherine (@kathjohnsen) July 15, 2016
Here’s the winners of the other prizes at Startupfest:
CBC Montreal Prize: daana
Thank you @CBCMontreal for the #Startupfest prize and help give-it-forward wellness activities to spread! pic.twitter.com/a8neGfTRVO
— daana (@globaldaana) July 15, 2016
$30,000 Videotron/ MAtv Prize: Key2Access
Les gagnantes du "Pitch 30 Secondes" sont @key2access qui remportent 30 000$ en services et visibilité! #Startupfest pic.twitter.com/q7pKIQHGbX
— MAtv (@MAtv_MTL) July 15, 2016
The Next 36 Young Entrepreneur Award: YouCollab
https://twitter.com/next36/status/754073236531535872
FounderFuel 2016 Cohort Prize: Botler
Grandmother’s Choice Award: Birdhouse
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