Two ASU student businesses were selected as part of the top 50 “most promising” business ventures in a worldwide entrepreneurial competition.
The Startup Open competition is part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, a series of events sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation.
The two businesses — Ellens Technologies and reNature — are competing for a one-year mentorship program and a trip to Liverpool to participate in the Global Entrepreneurship Congress.
Ellens Technologies, a mobile development company, is developing a computer and mobile device application to aid veterinarians in diagnosing sick animals quickly with less human error. The app has 120,000 symptoms to help users narrow down the diagnosis.
Management senior Jeremy Ellens started the company with his business-consultant father and veterinarian aunt, who inspired the product. Ellens wanted to help his aunt, who is wheelchair-bound because of multiple sclerosis, work out of her home with the application.
“(I) really hope that it helps veterinarians … and I hope that we get financial returns to help my aunt as well,” Ellens said.
reNature is a biotechnology company that industrializes the natural cycle of waste management to produce sustainable products. The company is constructing a bioreactor to produce a sustainable fertilizer product to sell to local farmers and use in large institutions such as community colleges and state universities.
The bioreactor is similar to a mechanical stomach that breaks down food, said company president and CEO Evan Taylor, a sustainability and economics junior.
“Its goal is to divert food waste from landfills so that we can process ways at a better efficiency instead of sending it to a landfill,” Taylor said.
The bioreactor will attempt to keep the nutrients in their own cycle, so that food waste returns to a sustainable product.
“The problems of industrialized consumption won’t be solved without industrializing sustainable production,” said CEO David Metoyer, a finance and business sustainability senior. “If we want to maintain that level of production, we’ve got to find a way to industrialize waste disposal that’s more sustainable and accelerated.”
Both companies were granted money from the ASU’s Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative, a program that funds student startups. For the Startup Open, each company pitched its ideas to a panel of judges after an online application process.
The winner of the competition will be announced during the week’s activities from Nov. 14-20.
Contact the reporter at ctetreault@asu.edu
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