Enterprizing Winners

The state's venture capitalists will be on hand when one team wins $100 000 for their business idea at Enterprize Pitch Day on 16 October. Enterprize is UQ Business School's $100 000 business plan competition, the most lucrative university competition of its kind in Australia, and just one way the School supports Australia's entrepreneurs. Enterprize has a track record for picking winning business ideas - current finalist, DendriMed, received $630 000 seed funding in August from Uniseed Management, a company formed to support the commercialization of university research. Last year's winning Enterprize team, CVSDude, was awarded the inaugural Richard Joel Young Entrepreneur Award at the 2007 Premier of Queensland's Export Awards. Hydrexia, winner of Enterprize in 2005 and a company whose product is a new materials technology for the inexpensive and safe storage of hydrogen, went on to win two Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia awards the following year. And it's not just the winners who stand to gain, finalists of Enterprize have gone on to great success. TenasiTech, an Enterprize finalist in 2007, also received seed funding from Uniseed Management this year, to the tune of $530 000. Imprezzeo, an Enterprize finalist from 2006, now has backing from Independent News and Media PLC (INM), and is expected to transform the image search market by allowing users to use images to search for images, rather than the traditional keyword-based approach. 2005 Enterprize finalist, Leximancer, has gone global with major clients like the Bank of America and its flagship software was used to help analyse submissions for the National Innovation System Review. The seven Enterprize finalists for 2008 with winning business ideas are Bilexys: the team has an innovative and cost effective way of removing dissolved organic compounds from wastewater, producing clean water and creating energy as a side product. Ceramipore: the team has come up with a way to reduce the overall cost of desalinating salt water by up to 40% - making desalination a much more viable option in many contexts. Mack Pull: an innovative system for stringing large overhead power cables. The machine is mounted to the side of a helicopter and has been tested by some of Australia's biggest players in the construction and maintenance of powerlines. DendriMed: a novel drug-delivery platform which aims to reduce side effects, increase efficacy, improve stability of drug molecules, and offers the capacity to test more drug candidates identified by researchers. ProGel: the team has found a low cost way to produce micro-capsules so small they are undetectable to humans. The technology has been used to encapsulate and protect a range of food and pharmaceutical products such as probiotics, drugs (eg ibuprofen), and health supplements (eg Omega-3). This technology makes it possible create foods with Omega-3 without the fishy taste and protect drugs and probiotics in the acidic stomach environment. LAADtech: the team has developed a lightweight LED screen for digital outdoor advertising. Until now, digital LED screens have been heavy and cumbersome, requiring new structural support systems. This new technology provides the opportunity to retro fit screens to existing structures, or onto structures that currently cannot support the existing heavy modular LED technology. Zebras: the team has found a way to protect the items we most dread losing - mobile phones and other portable information storage devices. The technology incorporates a tracking-and-return system to protect not only devices themselves but also their precious contents. For more information about Enterprize see www.enterprize.uq.edu.au. To enquire about attending Pitch Day on Thursday 16 October, please e-mail events@business.uq.edu.au.