Since 2015, the Vernadsky Challenge, organized by Max Polyakov's Association Noosphere, opened up new promising projects. Every year, the scale of the competition of engineering startups grows both quantitatively and geographically. A total of 230 applications were submitted to Vernadsky Challenge 2017 from countries such as Azerbaijan, Russia, the United States, India, Georgia, and others.
The main idea of the contest is to provide talented specialists with a platform for developing their ideas and opening new opportunities. Max Polyakov is sure that scientific and technical developments will change our lives and he tries to contribute to this in every way he can.
The qualifying stage of the contest was held in an online format, during which 10 finalists were selected and presented their projects at the finals at the National Aerospace Educational Center for Youth in Dnipro, Ukraine. Judges, including the legendary Mythbuster, Jamie Hyneman, identified the best 3 projects, which shared a grant from Max’s Polyakov Noosphere Ventures.
What happened to the winners?
Max Polyakov tends the Vernadsky Challenge not to be the final step of competitor’s teams. Pitching ideas at a competition is one thing. Further development is completely different. Everyone is interested in the fate of the winners of the Vernadsky Challenge and whether they have realized what was planned.First place in the competition was taken by Cubomania. This team impressed the judges with their bright, inclusive presentation. The essence of the project was the development of children’s basic skills in math, logic, and financial literacy through interactive and educational entertainment cubes. This idea reflects the philosophy of Max Polyakov well - that the development of the skills of small enthusiasts will affect the development of the technological environment in the future.
Cubomania hasn't stopped there and continues to conquer other battles of startups. For example, it won first place at the battle Time to grow a horn, won the People's Choice award at the UVCA (Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association) Challenge, took part in the Lviv IT Arena, and appeared on the International forum Innovation Market.
Second place went to Cardiomo, which presented a miniature device for monitoring basic health indicators, and also has a notification system for smartphones. The only winner in the category "Medical Equipment" was chosen by Max Polyakov and enlisted the support of Association Noosphere.
This team has successfully entered the international market. The co-founder of Cardiomo, Ksenia Belkina, won the Techstars pitch competition, thanks to which she received a 30-day placement for the project on Amazon.com Exclusive and a cash certificate on the Twilio platform. CNN Global presented the project on air with a few more startups from CES-2018.
Third place was taken by the American-Ukrainian project CloviFi. The WiFi-audio transmitter connects to a TV or other sound source and allows you to listen to a movie, TV show or music without interfering others. This project is also moving to the international level and has already been named a CES 2018 Innovations Awards Honoree.
As pointed out by Max Polyakov, Managing Partner of Noosphere Ventures, during his opening speech, the Vernadsky Challenge is intended not only for start-ups competing for a prize. All efforts are made to organize this competition to inspire people to share their ideas. And we want more events with similar goals in Ukraine.
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