Eight student startups who competed in the 2025 Cozad New Venture Challenge received awards from Research Park and EnterpriseWorks.
The CNVC is a campus-wide program run by the Technology Entrepreneur Center that provides mentoring to teams through the phases of venture creation, and resources in idea validation, pitching skills, and customer development.
EnterpriseWorks Catapult Award: includes up to $5,000 in professional support services to assist in new venture formation, in addition to student startup tenancy. Catapult recipients are:
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- Instinfo, a website where attendees can press a single button to get more information about a live presentation in real time
- Pinata Diagnostics, a startup that is using proximity aptamers for point-of-care ultrasensitive protein detection, allowing for rapid testing for traumatic brain injuries, concussions, and more
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The Student Startup Tenancy award, which includes access to EnterpriseWorks entrepreneurship resources including professional consulting, co-working space, and more, was awarded to:
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- Earlynosis, an AI-powered wearable biosensor for real-time sepsis detection
- Sensiboo is building the future of human development with a playtime planning app and wearable device that empowers parents to optimize early brain growth through personalized, enriching, real-world experiences
- Sprout, the first balloon-expandable RV-PA conduit that will replace right ventricular outflow tracts for congenital heart disease patients
- Tandemn, a software company that combines idle GPUs into a high-performance network for AI compute
- YoTally, a startup that is developing a smart stitch counter to prevent miscounting stitches while crocheting
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Research Park is proud to be of the sponsors of the newly launched Dr. P. Street College Innovation Prize. The Dr. P Street College Innovation Prize was created to honor the memory of Dr. William Patterson, a beloved member of the University of Illinois innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem who passed away in 2024. This prize recognizes student entrepreneurs using technology and education to empower the creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship of under-resourced communities. EnterpriseWorks contributed $2,500 of in-kind business incorporation professional services.
Strand Logic is the winner of the inaugural Dr. P Innovation Prize. Strand is revolutionizing Black hair care with innovative technology, automating synthetic hair separation to eliminate prep time.
EnterpriseWorks Student Memberships Available
EnterpriseWorks is pleased to offer student memberships to select Cozad teams who are continuing to work on their businesses and are interested in being part of the broader Champaign-Urbana startup community. Interested teams are encouraged to apply by filling out this form, mentioning participation in CNVC.
Past participants of the program include EnterpriseWorks graduates Cast21, DeepWalk, Mesh++, Prenosis, Psyonic, and Serionix, in addition to current EnterpriseWorks startups Natrion and ZiteAI.
Learn more about Cozad on the TEC website.
