Innovation Anthology #640:
Winner of the 2014 Perfect Pitch competition sponsored by Innovate Calgary is Emily Hicks.
Emily is a founder and co-CEO of a startup biotech company called FREDsense Technologies.
FRED stands for Field Ready Electrochemical Detector, and it is the progeny of a student iGEM or International Genetically Engineered Machines competition.
EMILY HICKS: Well, we’re a group of scientists that developed a really cool technology as part of a research competition that we were in and have now decided to commercialize it. And so we sought out some help from a variety of people that are able to give us some of the business expertise that we’re lacking. But what we’re trying to commercialize is a product that can really quickly tell you if there’s a toxin in your water. And we’re targeting that mostly to the petroleum industry. And so here in Alberta there’s quite a lot of concern for our water supplies and what the oil extraction process might be doing to our water supply. I think people are pretty interested in, you know, a technology that can tell them if there water was safe or not.
To move FREDsense closer to commercialization, Emily Hicks is looking for an investment of $500,000.
The $35,000 prize from Innovates Calgary will help with patent and marketing services.
Learn more at InnovationAnthology.com
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
,
, , , ,
Sponsor
Program Date: 2014-09-25