Medical device company Abilitech Medical won the Minnesota Cup's Grand Prize on Monday night, securing $50,000 to grow its business.
Abilitech landed an additional $25,000 as the competition's top women-led startup. Prior to Monday night's finale, Abilitech received $30,000 for winning the Cup's Life Sciences/Health IT division. This brings the company's total MN Cup winnings to more than $100,000.
Abilitech is creating a device that helps restore mobility to people with upper-limb and neuromuscular conditions. The wearable device fits to the arm, and like a vehicle's power steering, requires a small percentage of power from the patient to enable a functional range of motion.
Abilitech says the device itself is lightweight, easy to use and comfortable. The innovation was also recently recognized by the Minnesota High Tech Association's Tekne program as a finalist in the med-tech category.
A huge congratulations to this year’s MN Cup Grand Prize Winner Abilitech Medical! pic.twitter.com/9gxfnbYfrT
— MN Cup (@MinnesotaCup) October 14, 2019
Abilitech said in a statement that it will use the momentum from its MN Cup win to continue preparing for FDA registration and a 75-patient clinical study being developed with the University of Minnesota and Gillette Children's hospital. The study will recruit people who live with muscular dystrophy and upper-arm weakness that prevent them from living and working independently.
MN Cup's $25,000 runner-up prize went to Resonant Cavity, creator of Voloco, an app that provides pitch correction and harmonization so that everyday singers sound like pros.
Another big winner on Monday night was Phenomix Sciences. The company came in third place in the Life Sciences/Health IT division and was not competing for the grand prize. But the founders still managed to secure $10,000 from Securian Financial as the top insurance-tech startup in the competition, and another $35,000 from MEDA as the top minority-led startup.
Just three days earlier, Phenomix Sciences was one of three winners of this year's MEDA Million Dollar Challenge.
Here is a breakdown of other prizes awarded during MN Cup's Final Awards ceremony:
| STARTUP | AWARD | EXTRA $$ |
| Guardian Athletics | Southern MN Initiative Foundation Prize | $5K |
| Phenomix Sciences | Securian Financial Group Prize (top insurance tech) | $10K |
| Harvest Nation | DEED Prize for Top Native-Led Startup | $15K |
| Nexyst 360 | DEED Prize for Greater MN Startup | $15K |
| Abilitech Medical | Carlson Family Foundation Prize for Top Women-Led Startup | $25K |
| Busy Baby | Carlson Family Foundation Prize for Top Veteran-Led Startup | $25K |
| Phenomix Sciences | MEDA/Chase Prize for Top Minority-Led Startup | $35K |
After winning last year’s competition, HabitAware was listed on Time Magazine’s list of Best 2018 Inventions. The company also won the top prize in MEDA’s $1 Million Challenge, walking away with $400,000.
