Announcing Our 2024 FemSTEM Pitch Winners
The 2024 FemSTEM event series concluded on March 26th, with the annual FemSTEM Pitch Competition! Selected from a pool of 27 eligible applicants, six finalists ultimately competed to win funding for their women-led health ventures: Creative Medical Solutions, Epileplon NeuroSolutions, ImaginAble Solutions, NorthMiRs Inc, SilicoLabs, and Toothpod by U CORP.
This year’s event took place in-person at the newly-opened Schwartz-Reisman Innovation Campus. A packed-room was present to cheer along our fantastic finalists, who sought to impress expert judges: Christine Allen, Liz Munro and Michaela Shaw.
Judges and audience members alike were impressed by the caliber of pitches and work being undertaken by the trailblazing finalists. A big congratulations to each and every finalist!
We are thrilled to announce the winners of this year’s competition:
- ImaginAble Solutions, presented by Lianna Genovese, won the grand prize of $15,000
- Creative Medical Solutions, presented by Dr. Monica Farcas, was the 1st runner up, and
- Toothpod by UCORP, presented by Vishar Yaghoubian, was 2nd runner up – each taking home a $5,000 prize.
In addition, all three teams will receive $5,000 in in-kind legal services from Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP.
A big thank you to our FemSTEM sponsors, Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP and the Temerty Foundation, for their continuous support of the FemSTEM program and women in health entrepreneurship. Sincere thanks to the numerous Cassels Associates and Partners who showed up to support our finalists, and to Cassels Partner Robyn Blumberg for announcing the winners.
Thank you to all those who took part in the 2024 FemSTEM event series! We invite you to join H2i, Social Enterprise Ghana and Sustineri Attorneys virtually on April 17th as we kickoff the inaugural FemSTEM Africa event series! Learn more & register here!
Hear from Our Winners!
“ImaginAble Solutions was delighted to participate in the FemSTEM pitch competition, connecting with remarkable women entrepreneurs! We’re grateful and honored to have secured first place, earning $15,000 towards scaling the production for our assistive technology, Guided Hands, proudly manufactured in Hamilton, Ontario. Partnering with H2i, we eagerly anticipate scaling the impact of Guided Hands in international markets and improve the quality of life for people with disabilities across the world!”
-Lianna Genovese, Co-Founder & CEO
Learn more about ImaginAble Solutions here!
“FemSTEM 2024 was an extremely high-quality event and we are honored to have been invited to pitch. The opportunity to hear from a variety of female founders was equally inspiring. My team and I are excited to use our prize to manufacture units that we can lend to our partners for beta-testing, and soon after convert them to our first paying customers.”
-Dr. Monica Farcas, Chief Medical Officer
“Toothpod is beyond grateful to have been selected amongst the amazing female led startups. This funding, both from Cassels, Temerty, and Health Innovation Hub, will allow Toothpod to continue growing and scaling. Toothpod is now one step closer to launching its Dental Smart Gum because of this funding! Connecting with brilliant female founders and watching them pour their heart into their companies was the highlight of the event.”
-Vishar Yaghoubian, Co-Founder & CEO
Learn more about Toothpod here!