22 local startup founders shortlisted for the Guyana Innovation Prize programme

Oct 13, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Twenty two Guyanese startup founders with standout ideas in science, technology and agriculture have been shortlisted as the new cohort of Venture Fellows for the 2022-23 Guyana Innovation Prize programme.

Launched in 2018, the Guyana Innovation Prize as an annual, nine-month-long programme, offered by !nnovate Guyana and funded exclusively by Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT). In a press release !nnovate Guyana said, the Innovation Prize programme provides expert international business coaching, technical support, and capital that help build upon and improve the Fellows’ efforts to bring their commercially viable ideas to fruition.

Since its launch, the programme has trained and coached over 50 Guyanese scientists, technologists and agriculturists, and has awarded 8 of these innovators with US$10,000 each to scale their ideas. Oslene Carrington, CEO of the Guyana Economic Development Trust (GEDT), the company under which !nnovate Guyana operates, said that the Guyana Innovation Prize was created to fill the gap between ordinary Guyanese who have breakthrough ideas and the opportunities to bring real and new products to market.

“From our perspective, there are no barriers to innovating new, commercially viable ideas. This programme has been designed to support “innovation for all,” which is in keeping with one of GTT’s brand pillars,” Carrington said. This year’s cohort began the Innovation Prize programme in July 2022 with 31 shortlisted Venture Fellows, and is now further shortlisted to 23, who are currently going through the second phase of the programme.

According to the release, GTT’s Senior Manager – PR and Corporate Communication, Jasmin Harris said the company is impressed with the entries from the previous years and is excited about the new ideas from this cohort. “Last year, everything was amazing. And we are looking forward to the same and even more effort in this batch… Our mission is to pivot our company to become a 21st century customer centric organization and in order for that to be accomplished, there are three customer facing promises, which includes innovate for all in Guyana, and strengthen the community. I believe by us supporting this initiative, this is where we are able to lend to the development not only of Guyana economically, but in terms of brain power, and persons being able to be diverse in their thoughts because innovation is not only technologically minded, but it is also bringing something new,” Harris underscored.

The stand-out Venture Fellows who joined the programme in July 2022 are Master Grillers Charcoal Briquettes by Euclid Samuels, Geometry Tiferet Ugdala LLC by Gavin Palmer, Interlocking Construction Bricks by Abdul Subhan, Created Hands-Created Things by Verlyn Collins, Bringgy by Jay Carter, Vaxxil by Andrew Garnett, Dragonfly Geospatial by Brian Smith, Bug Feeds by Sarwan Scarce, Andy Investment Company by Quinn Smith, Click-n-Learn by Anthony Wills, Ctxog Design by Sean Griffith, Innovation for All by Feiasie Baksh, FemCare by Jaya Edwards, the Moringa Shop by Issac Safi, Infinity Power FDAP by Jamal Farley, Anahata Inc. by Kelly Brassington, CME Prep by Raule Williams, Fizuro Inc. By Dorwin Kingston, GuyMart by Shaquille Moseley, Tamarindus Indica by Dwayne Harris, To Go Services by Albert Jessemy, Urban Agriculture by Neisha Vantrompe, and Biomaterials by Isidro Ubaldo Espinosa.

In January 2023, the Guyana Innovation Prize programme finalists will be announced. From there, the four Fellows with the most commercially viable products will each receive US$10,000 at the annual award ceremony in April 2023.

!nnovate Guyana is a platform that showcases Guyanese inventiveness. !nnovate Guyana consists of the Guyana Innovation Prize, which supports ag-science and ag-tech startups; !nnovate Guyana TV on YouTube; the Economic Development Accelerator for growing agro-processors; the Global Entrepreneurship Network Guyana chapter; and the Executive Volunteer Corps, which engages the diaspora and friends of Guyana to assist innovators in Guyana’s burgeoning startup ecosystem. !nnovate Guyana is offered by the Guyana Economic Development Trust (GEDT), an independent U.S. and Guyana initiative.