HiveTech takes top prize at CU New Venture Challenge
BOULDER — Two University of Colorado students and a pair of instructors in the school’s environmental design program wooed judges on Thursday night to win the CU New Venture Challenge with their business idea to help prevent the decline of bee populations.
Dubbed HiveTech Solutions, the group took home the top prize of $10,000, plus a package of in-kind services from SoftLayer valued at $120,000.
The CU New Venture Challenge is an eight-year-old cross-campus business pitch competition that has yielded companies such as Revolar and Mallinda that have gone on to participate in Techstars and raise significant funding for their ideas.
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HiveTech is developing a “smart hive” that can help beekeepers track the health of their hives and respond more quickly to the needs of their bees. The team consists of students Peggy Tautz and Chelsea Cook and instructors Kimberly Drennan and Justin Bellucci. They edged out Grownetics, which took home $5,000 in second place for its crop-sensing and automation platform that helps growers increase efficiency and maintain quality.
The Space Research Co. won third place at $3,000 for its platform for providing commercial service for space-based research in a less expensive and more timely fashion than is currently available.
Finalists Outloud! and Sing It Forward, meanwhile, each took home $1,000.
