Cleantech startup Volta Air wins Innovate BC–New Ventures competition

Richmond-based company wins $110,000 in cash and prizes

The 18th annual Innovate BC–New Ventures competition crowned a handful of winners on Monday, September 24, at the Telus World of Science in support of Vancouver Startup Week.

Richmond-based Volta Air took home the grand prize, winning the six-month, four-round competition with its cost-effective and sustainable refrigeration solution for urban delivery. The company makes electric, zero-emission transportable refrigeration units that allow delivery vehicles to keep products cool while stopped.

Nelson’s Cyberdontics and Vancouver-based Medimap (and its co-founder, former 30 Under 30 winner Blake Adam) took home the second and third place prize packages, valued at $60,000 and $35,000 respectively. Cyberdontics brings digital automation to dentistry, while Medimap is reportedly reducing the hours patients spend at walk-in clinics by more than 50 percent with its real-time updates on waiting periods.

There was also a quartet of industry winners, with the following companies judged as the best in the competition’s various categories:

CRM GeoTomography Technologies  – $20,000 BC Resource Industry prize package

Careteam Technologies – $17,000 Vancity Social Venture prize package

Cyberdontics – $10,000 Innovate BC Top Regional Startup prize package and $15,000 ?CDRD Life Sciences prize package

Quupe – $6,000 BC Tech Association Growth Programs prize package

“Every year, the Innovate BC–New Ventures Competition showcases the best and brightest new startups in B.C.,” Bruce Ralston, minister of jobs, trade and technology, said in a statement. “This year, the tradition continued with an impressive list of competition graduates who are on the pathway to bringing their ideas to the next level and further elevating B.C. as a leader in innovation.”