Tech Evening | Startup that rescues enzyme from Antartica wins pitch competition

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Like every month, Start-Up Chile held its monthly pitch event, where the 10 best startups in the biotechnology and health industry exposed their businesses in front of judges and guests related to the field. The winners received a giftcard from Transbank and the recognition of “Bull of the month” by Viña Requingua.

 

In the sixth Tech Evening of 2017 10 startups exposed the best in terms of biotech, advances in medicine and research in the e-health field.

Based on its business model, impact and scalability, the company that took the first place in this opportunity was NovaCold presented by Juan Rozas, who along with his team discovered and developed a new enzyme pectinase and phytase, highly efficient at low temperatures, for agro-industrial application (specifically in the wine and salmon industry).

The project has been brewing since 2011 where the NovaCold team made expeditions to virgin areas of the Chilean Antarctic territory to study the existence of extremophilic microorganisms and their enzymes.

The Founder, Juan Rozas, was awarded a Gift Card of Transbank for around 500 dollars and gifts from Toro de Piedra wine. He was also highlighted as “Bull of the Month”, award for the most outstanding entrepreneur of the day by Viña Requingua.

The second place was obtained by Biocellix, a biotechnology company dedicated to the development of products that help the regeneration of tissues and in particular, the treatment of chronic wounds.

The third place was for Diagnochip, which designs, develops and sells kits for antibiograms allowing the results of the identification of antibiotic sensitivity of the patient in only 8 hours.

The second and third places also won prizes from Transbank, Banco BCI and Viña Requingua.

The Tech Evenings are monthly events with different themes where 10 startups present. With this, Start-Up Chile seeks to highlight the visibility of high-impact startups in front of large companies, so that solutions to their corporate problems come from the entrepreneurial world.

The event also culminated with a cocktail to promote networking thanks to Banco BCI and was broadcast live via Streaming thanks to the support of Microsoft.

The next Tech Evening will be on October 3rd and will invite startups from the Energy and Engineering industries. Entrepreneurs will show their businesses and technological solutions in the matter. In addition, the event will take place in the new co-work of Start-Up Chile located in Monjitas and can be watched live that day from 5:30pm at www.startupchile.org/live and on  Start- Up Chile’s Facebook.