A team that created a new medical device to cure hemorrhoids won grand prize in the 12th Annual UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition Finals on April 29.
Orpheus Medical was awarded the $20,000 grand prize plus a $5,000 first-place prize in the life sciences track before a standing-room-only crowd of more than 300 attendees in Arthur Andersen Auditorium.
The competition, organized by the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, has become the premier entrepreneurship event for the wider Berkeley community. In addition to seed funding, winners enjoy the opportunity to present their ideas to venture capitalists from such firms as Khosla Ventures and the Mayfield Fund, who serve as judges.
Orpheus Medical has created the first medical device that can painlessly cure hemorrhoids in a single procedure that can be performed by gastroenterologists without general anesthesia in their endoscopy suites. For the second year in a row, the grand prize winner will head to Spain to participate in 22@Barcelona’s HIT Barcelona World Innovation Summit in June for a chance to win up to 20,000 Euros.
“We were quite simply blown away with the quality of entrants to this year's UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition. The time, thought, and energy that went into each of the plans is truly an inspiration to entrepreneurs across our campus and the Bay Area community, showing us that the spirit of innovation is alive and well,” said Richard Kenny, MBA 11, one of the 2010 Competition Co-Chairs.
In addition to Orpheus Medical, two other teams won $5,000 first place prizes, each in their own track. The winners were Bidwave, IT and web track, which provides a simple platform for effective advertising in social networks; and BrightSense, products and services track, which designed customized teeth whitening strips to reduce post-treatment pain. BrightSense also won the $5,000 People's Choice Award; from Haas the team includes Jed Hwang, MBA/MPH 11.
The winner of the new $1,000 Elevator Pitch Award was Emiscape, which developed technology to display video images on glass for digital advertising and consumer entertainment. From Haas the Emiscape team includes Cang Quach, MBA 11, and Prateek Gera, MBA 12.