PreSight, a startup developing the first screening tool for a rare condition found in premature babies, won first place and $30,000 at Northwestern University’s annual VentureCat competition on Wednesday.
The startup, founded by Simon Yin, a Kellogg School of Management MBA candidate, and Rosemary Hines Fuller, a student in Northwestern's joint MD and MBA program, has created a tool to screen for retinopathy of prematurity, a potentially blinding eye disorder that primarily affects premature infants.
The current method to screen babies for ROP is through eye-prying exams, which can be extremely painful, traumatic and dangerous for an infant. PreSight’s device simply uses tears from the patient to test for ROP.
“We’re speechless right now,” Yin said. “We’re very thankful for Northwestern and for Kellogg, and for the opportunity to showcase our idea on stage.”
Yin said PreSight will use the funds to finance clinical trials of the startup’s device that will help get it cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as PreSight prepares for commercialization. PreSight, which was launched in September, will be ready to raise its first official funding round in the next six months, Yin said.
Dindin, a startup co-founded by Brunna Seabra that operates a fintech service for people in Brazil, came in second place, winning $15,000. LimeLight, a startup co-founded by Phil O’Brien that is making a device to supply light in greenhouses, came in third place and won $10,000. Additionally, Maziwa, a startup co-founded by Sahar Jamal that's working to bring low-cost breast pumps to women in developing countries, was the audience pick, winning $2,000.
More than 75 teams applied to compete in this year’s VentureCat, with 26 making it to the semi-finals. Just minutes before the finals on Wednesday evening, the five finalists were announced and pitched their companies to six investors, ranging from Rob Chesney, a partner at Chicago Ventures, and Sonia Nagar, a partner at Pritzker Group Venture Capital.
The startups that pitched in the finals were companies that won first place and $5,500 in their industry tracks. The other finalist that pitched was Slate, a startup that matches people with licensed tattoo artists. Throughout the course of the day, Northwestern gave out more than $100,000 in non-dilutive prize money.
Last year, NUMiX Materials, a startup that’s made a technology to remove toxic metals from water, won the first place prize at the VentureCat.
Jon McNeill, the COO at Lyft and a Northwestern graduate, opened the competition with a keynote speech, reminiscing on his time as a student at the university and applauding the college for encouraging students’ entrepreneurial work.
“Seeing the full extent of what’s happening at Northwestern now makes me really proud,” said McNeill, who was also previously the president of global sales and services a Tesla Motors. “I’m really grateful to Northwestern for having the foresight to do things like VentureCat.”
