A U of T Scarborough start-up that uses biotechnology to turn restaurant food waste into valuable raw materials took home second place at a recent entrepreneurship competition.
Genecis, which was started by a group of Environmental Science students at U of T Scarborough, placed second in the Early Stage Category at the RBC Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
“This wonderful start-up is a source of pride and an excellent example of what innovative students can achieve when they are given the opportunity,” says Gray Graffam, Director of The Hub.
The start-up, which has received mentorship from The Hub, is already testing a prototype in the Scarborough area that can convert food waste on site into resalable substances that can be used to make biodegradable plastics, pharmaceutical drugs and bio-fuels. They also recently won top prize at The Hub’s Startup Competition.
The RBC Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a new annual business pitch competition to reward and accelerate innovative technologies and startups at U of T. Dozens of U of T startups entered the competition spanning medicine, computer science, business, engineering, chemistry and environmental science, among others. Each team delivered a five-minute public pitch to judges.
The competition took place March 31 to cap off the Entrepreneurship@UofT Week Startup Showcase.