Spark’s Ideas Challenge incorporates the former $10k and Aspire Challenges. This year Spark went after both social and commercial entries which would then have the opportunity to be developed during the year and entered into the $100k Challenge. Entry was via submission of 1,000 words detailing the proposed business.
Winners in the category Social Entrepreneurship
Fat-Health Scanner: “Our product will measure the health status of fat. Its change from a normal to a stressed state is a key trigger for the development of disease.
Bread in Bloom: “The aim of this business venture is to establish a bakery at the site of the new plaza created by the Auckland City Mission's new housing project, Mission in the City.”
P3 Foundation: “The P3 Foundation (P3F) was setup to help mobilise young people to break the poverty cycle.”
Flash Mobs for Social Good: “A social movement that spreads act of random kindness.
OneBeep: “OneBeep has developed an inexpensive and robust method to send educational content to the OLPC.”
EqualAccess: “EqualAccess will evaluate and improve websites to ensure accessibility for all.”
Employable: “A unique website that allows not-for-profit organisations an opportunity to have a partnerships with volunteering students who would like to gain valuable work experience while they are studying.”
Perspective: “Perspective offers a website aimed at helping youth suffering from depression, understand, treat and beat the illness using a personalised avatar.
CycleBest: “An online application that allows users to find multiple best routes to get from A to B.
Vital Gifts: “Our goal is to lift millions of people out of poverty. By harnessing the power of the world we can solve a world problem.”
Winners in the category Commercial Entrepreneurship
The G.I. Joes: “Our venture entails commercialisation of a novel medical device and software package to record the electrical activity arising from the human stomach, without the need for invasive surgical procedures.”
MolSeek: “MolSeek is a web-based marketplace and community for searching, seeking, sharing and selling of biological and chemical molecules.”
CarboCarriers: ”CarboCarriers are a new nano-particle for cancer drug transport which uses a non reactive carbon sponge coated in a gold and polymer shell which concentrates at the tumor site through EPR.
Origin EggNog: “Origin milks the cow, collect the eggs, and distils the grog so you can drink the Nog. Every ingredient in our bottle of EggNog can be sustainably traced back to its point of origin, right on the back label of each bottle.”
Nano-Brush: “A novel inorganic composite nanomaterial has been developed as a photocatalyst, which can decomposition toxic organic chemical and bacteria by utilization of the solar energy.
Thermoheal: “Thermoheal is a new state-of-the-art composite blend with self-healing capabilities, representing the next generation of composites technology.
Project Freedom: “Project Freedom is developing software and hardware that seamlessly merges smartphones, external displays, keyboards and mice.”
Simple Open Audio Platform - The SOAP Box: “There are several open source packages for mixing and producing music but no audio hardware built with open source principals. This project intends to remedy that.
eMusicPage: “eMusicPage software transforms the iPad, touch screens and tablet PCs into electronic music stands.
Healthy Memory Company: “It is the mission of the Directors of the company to help Boomers push back against future memory loss.”
You can find full descriptions of each winner here.