iGEM EPIC’s 2021 Bio-Hackathon concludes!
EPIC has successfully kicked-off our first event of the year, a Bio-Hackathon during the weekend, March 20-21, 2021, with around 160 biofounders participating globally.
Exciting events
The EPIC weekend has been filled with challenges focused on health, food, and industry. Biofounders were not only given a chance to find their potential partners in the speed-dating arena and networking sessions, but they also had time to upskill their abilities and knowledge in building startup 101. Thanks to our partners, Counterfactual Ventures, Entrepreneur First, VTT/SynBio Powerhouse, who hosted the Hackathon workshops to help participants ideate, reframe their ideas, leverage strengths, find their matched co-founders, and in the end, huddle up to work on the pitch.
Winner Announcement
EPIC was thrilled with the teams' progress in the final pitch; a hackathon is an exciting area for these innovators to work together and pitch their idea. The ideas ranged from superfoods, bio-manufacturing and food additives innovation.
The first winner was Zimmuti, a startup based in Sub-Saharan Africa. The four founders are Stephen Mukuze, Kenani Kenani, Petros Chigwechokha, and Stephen Opiyo. According to the team, the Bio-Hackathon was a helpful event for them to develop the business model of their idea and chart their path to commercialization as all four teammates come from a science background.
The idea for the startup came from one of the team members having lived in a farm area in Zimbabwe and experiencing a lack of waste recycled, which led to accumulation that affected animal health as well as the city’s river quality. This inspired the team to look for ways to create biodegradable materials. Stephen Mukuze initially worked with a biodegradable plastic made of cassava, and subsequently realized that biodegradable plastic can be created with synthetic biology. This is the journey they and the rest of the team from Zimmuti will now embark upon with a good head start from winning the Bio-Hackathon.
We are proud of the teams that participated in the EPIC Bio-Hackathon! Thanks to our partners that contributed to making this hackathon happen.
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