Ukraine Digital News reports on the the third edition of international engineering startup competition Vernadsky Challenge, which was held in Dnipro in late April 2017. The winners are:
- Cubomania developed interactive toy cubes for kids and received a 800,000 hryvnia grant (ca $30,000).
- Cardiomo, US-Ukrainian medtech startup, offers heart health monitoring device and won 600,000 hryvnias (ca $23,000) as the second best project.
- CloviTek, US-Ukrainian startup, offers TV wireless audio transmitter, won the third price of 400,000 hryvnias (ca $15,000).
- Raccoon.world, a US-based start-up company with R&D center in Kyiv was awarded 200,000 hryvnias (ca $7,500) in the “Audience Choice” nomination. This company designs a variety of gadgets for hands, including Raccoon.Clip, “a universal controller for mobile VR and video games,” and Raccoon.Glove, “a multifunctional device for operating and interacting with virtual reality and remote objects.”
The Vernadsky Challenge is the brain child of Noosphere Ventures. It looks for hi-tech projects that can make the world a better place. The competition is named after Volodymyr Vernadsky, the author on the theory of Noosphere, literally, “mind sphere”. Vernadsky believed that in the future scientific thought would become a core driving force of the planet’s development. The Vernadsky Challenge aims to give life to innovative solutions that are based on the principles of global thinking, science and creation.
Ukraine Digital News (UADN) is the first international information platform dedicated to the Ukrainian digital and IT industries. Its website provides news, market data, business analysis and updates pertaining to the Internet, e-commerce, IT services, software development, hardware and other innovation in the country as well as to the related investment activity and legal environment.