2024 Coast Capital Venture Prize winner drives sustainable transportation forward
Apr 15, 2024
L-R: Mauro Manzi, Coast Capital; Anthony King and Hannah King, Fingerprint Technologies; Carolyn Egri, SFU Beedie School of Business. Photo Credit: Kevin Pilar Photography
A micromobility hardtech startup is the top winner of SFU’s 13th annual Coast Capital Venture Prize competition. Fingerprint Technologies will use the $10,000 cash award and in-kind business development services towards bringing its novel e-bike to market in 2025.
Co-founders Anthony and Hannah King launched Fingerprint Technologies in 2021, with a current product focus on the most widely-used and fastest-growing form of micromobility—the electric bicycle. Fingerprint’s reinvention of the e-bike will reduce car trips and attract new users – especially women – by making e-bikes lighter and safer to ride. This novel product will offer automated gearing, assisted balancing, electronic braking and enable car-like advanced safety features and simplified controls. The founders’ mission is to dramatically increase adoption rates for lightweight, electric two-wheel vehicles.
Anthony King leveraged his decade of experience in automotive electrification with training through SFU Beedie’s Invention to Innovation (i2I) Graduate Certificate in Science & Technology Commercialization (GSCTC) – a unique program that helps scientists and engineers build translational skills and an entrepreneurial mindset to create comprehensive plans to bring their research to impact. Fingerprint is also receiving mentorship and startup development services as a participant of SFU’s Coast Capital Venture Connection incubator, and has also benefited from the AccelerateIP program through SFU VentureLabs.
Fingerprint previously won top Idea Prize (2022) and Social Impact (2023). Winning the Top Venture prize in 2024 symbolizes a pivotal achievement for the co-founders.
“Hannah and I were so proud and honored to receive this award among such a talented group of founders. Our progress is a credit to the hard work of our incredible team who are passionate about creating a new era of cycling and the award inspires us to keep thinking big,” says Anthony King, CEO and co-founder of Fingerprint Technologies. “Since working with Coast Capital Venture Connection and the Chang Institute, our plans have accelerated due to the overwhelming support we have received. Our invaluable mentors have been in our corner at every step of the journey and inspired us to strive for a bold vision to reshape the future of sustainable transport.”
Coast Capital Venture Prize is SFU’s largest entrepreneurship competition and a signature program of the Charles Chang Institute for Entrepreneurship within the Beedie School of Business. The institute is creating the most comprehensive and inclusive continuum of interdisciplinary, experiential programming to develop the entrepreneurial mindset, Coast Capital Venture Prize is in its 13th year of celebrating SFU entrepreneurs, and since 2012 has awarded more than $600,000 in cash and in-kind prizes to local founders and startups.
The annual event has grown to include a top venture prize and awards for science-based, tech-based, community-based, alumni-founded and idea-stage ventures, to encourage and celebrate the diversity of entrepreneurial activity at SFU.
Open to the entire university community, this year’s competitors represented undergrad and graduate students – international and domestic – post-doctoral fellows, faculty members, staff, and alumni, from seven of SFU’s eight faculties.
The 53 competitor teams ranged from not-for-profit social impact organizations to AI-education platforms. Half of these teams are led or co-founded by women, an emerging trend that signals a growing commitment to fostering inclusivity among leaders in entrepreneurship. By actively supporting diverse backgrounds and perspectives, Coast Capital Venture Prize aims to not only celebrate innovation, but also to drive meaningful impact and sustainable growth within the community.
L-R: Gaurav Jain and Aditi Kapil, Pulse Tofu; Simon Ford, SFU Beedie School of Business. Photo Credit: Kevin Pilar Photography
Pulse Tofu, a sustainable nutrition-focused startup founded by 2023 MBA alumnus Gaurav Jain and co-founder Aditi Kapil, took home the Top Idea prize. Pulse Tofu offers solutions for those seeking an alternative to traditional soy-based tofu.
“This recognition is a testament to the hard work and innovation we have invested in developing a delicious product that caters to the needs of soy-sensitive individuals,” says Jain. “With the crucial funding, resources, and connections we have gained, we can now take our concept to execution.”
The winners were announced April 9, 2024 at a ceremony hosted at SFU VentureLabs, where more than $50,000 of cash and in-kind prizes were awarded. More than 100 attendees heard from speakers representing partners and supporters from throughout SFU’s innovation community, including SFU Beedie dean pro tem Carolyn Egri and Mauro Manzi, chief commercial, wealth and retail officer at Coast Capital. The keynote address was delivered by Ranah Chavoshi, co-founder of PhyCo Technologies, the 2023 Venture Prize winner, and the ceremony was hosted by the Chang Institute’s acting executive director Janice OBriain. Their insights highlighted the Venture Prize competition as a catalyst for impact within the entrepreneurship community.
“As a federal financial cooperative and a social purpose organization, Coast Capital is committed to creating economic opportunities for people and businesses in Canada,” says Manzi. “We’ve seen first-hand the positive and lasting impact that Canadian entrepreneurs make every day. It is our hope that through purpose-driven activities, like sponsoring SFU’s largest entrepreneurship competition, we can empower this next generation of entrepreneurs to grow their businesses while also contributing to better futures for all.”
Since 2008, Coast Capital has been a key partner with SFU in fostering entrepreneurship and innovation through Coast Capital Venture Connection, and as title sponsor of the Coast Capital Venture Prize competition since 2012.
WINNERS OF THE 2024 COAST CAPITAL VENTURE PRIZE AWARDS
Top Venture: Fingerprint Technologies
Top Idea: Pulse Tofu
Local to Global Category Prize: NaloxHome Society
Science & Technology Category Prize: BryoSphere Biotechnologies
Digital Platforms Category Prize: Summations
Idea Stream Runner-Ups: Roomtree, Agora, ImpAssis
Patrick Lougheed SFU Alumni Founder Award: Ryan Stolys of One Iota Performance
Photo Credit: Kevin Pilar Photography