BioBead, an agricultural technology startup from the University of Washington, claimed the grand prize at this year’s Dempsey Startup Competition, securing $25,000 from BECU along with an additional $2,500 through the Voyager Capital Best Business to Business Idea Prize.
This marks the 29th year of the competition, which saw unprecedented participation with 186 startups initially entering. These were eventually narrowed down to 16 finalists who presented their business concepts to judges in simulated boardroom environments. The total prize pool distributed among winners reached $92,500, with the awards ceremony taking place in Seattle on May 21.
The competition welcomes student entrepreneurs from a broad geographic area spanning Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, and British Columbia. Participants vary widely in their development stages, from those with basic prototypes to teams possessing minimum viable products or technologies prepared for market entry.
Throughout the seven-week competition period, participating teams work to polish their business strategies, with some recruiting business students to enhance their market entry approaches. Judges observed that artificial intelligence has enabled teams to create increasingly advanced technologies this year.
BioBead’s winning innovation consists of small, biodegradable pellets containing bacteria and fungi that have naturally coexisted in soil ecosystems for approximately 400 million years. These microorganisms help plants take up critical nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus more effectively.
Korena Mafune, a UW research scientist and BioBead co-founder, noted that people often overlook the importance of soil ecosystems because they’re invisible to the naked eye. However, she emphasized that these underground organisms are crucial for successful crop growth above the surface.
The founding team includes Mafune, Renee Davis, who is completing her doctoral studies at UW, and Mari Winkler, a UW professor specializing in civil and environmental engineering. Jared Espinosa, who recently completed his MBA at UW’s Foster School of Business, joined the team specifically for the competition.
The company has been collaborating with agricultural producers growing various crops including lettuces, tomatoes, corn, and wheat to evaluate the soil treatment’s effectiveness. Preliminary findings indicate increased crop production while decreasing dependence on fertilizers that are becoming more costly.
Adding to BioBead’s success, Mafune recently secured a $275,000 grant from the Washington Research Foundation to advance the technology’s commercial development.
The remaining top prize winners included CPRight, a collaboration between UW and Western University of Health Sciences in Oregon, which earned the $15,000 WRF Capital Second Place Prize. Their innovation is a affordable patch delivering real-time data on compression depth and rhythm during cardiac emergencies requiring CPR. CPRight additionally received the $2,500 Chris and Barbara Petersen Best Health & Wellness Impact Idea Prize.
Kinnex Health from the University of Idaho secured the $10,000 iSpot.tv Third Place Prize for developing a wearable sensor that continuously monitors joint movement in patients following orthopedic procedures and surgeries. This team also captured the $2,500 Amazon Best Consumer Product Idea Prize.
The $7,500 Friends of the Dempsey Startup Fourth Place Prize went to Alarmable from UW, which is designing a wearable bracelet charm that doubles as an emergency alarm device.
Additional prize recipients included Osanwe Link from UW winning the $5,000 Wilson Sonsini Social Impact Big Picture Prize, LEAF from UW receiving the $5,000 Kathryn Gardow & David Bradlee Climate Solutions Big Picture Prize, and Adam Biotech from UW taking the $5,000 Glympse Emerging Tech Big Picture Prize.
Several $2,500 prizes were awarded to Clubless Collective from UW for Best Sustainable Business, Kindred from UW for Best Marketplace Idea, Emerald Dynamics from UW for Best Innovation/Technology Idea, UWEMS from UW for Community Impact, and GridGuard from UBC for Best Idea with Global Reach.