“This is probably one of the most exciting things we do in the fall,” said Professor Paul Santerre, director of the Health Innovation Hub (H2i), in his opening remarks for Pitch Perfect 2025 — a pitch competition organized by the H2i and the Temerty Faculty of Medicine for early-stage health-related companies. The event took place on November 12 at the William Doo Auditorium. 

Startups submitted applications in September, and the selected finalists had five minutes to deliver their pitch at the competition, followed by questions from the judging panel. Three winners were awarded $5,000 each to further develop their companies. 

This year’s judges were Faizah Balogun, program coordinator for the Black Founders Network; Liz Munro, president of Liz Munro Consulting; Liam Kaufman, executive vice-president of Cambridge Cognition, a digital health company assessing brain health; and Yasaman Soudagar, co-founder and former CEO of Neurescence Inc., which developed a microscope for viewing neural circuits in the brain. 

U of T’s entrepreneurial environment

When asked about what stood out in this year’s competition, Sophie Stuart-Sheppard, the communications manager for H2i, said in an interview with The Varsity that “the calibre of the pitches and the traction that their products are getting before coming into the pitch is getting more and more impressive, and that honestly speaks to the fact that U of T has more resources for the students and the Entrepreneurship network.” A recent U of T Entrepreneurship report stated that the network raised over $14 billion in the last five years. 

Contestants echoed similar sentiments. “U of T has a pretty good culture of promoting startup and entrepreneurial work to students,” shared Jasmine Jing in an interview with The Varsity. 

Jing is a fourth-year life science student and the chief marketing officer for TechInu, a Pitch Perfect finalist developing an optical sensor that will monitor indicators of human health in real time. She added, “Because I’m a student [at U of T]… I can maximize my connections and opportunities here to kind of push [TechInu] further.”

The winners

Startups AlloWide, NephroTech, and VRiT won the competition.

AlloWide aims to improve surgical and transplant outcomes by developing a new chemical solution to soak a donor’s bone in before a transplant, enhancing the bone’s regenerative potential.

NephroTec developed a new product called DialySnake to prevent complications in patients with kidney failure. When a patient’s kidneys can no longer properly filter their blood, doctors inject a cleansing fluid into their body through a catheter tube, a process known as peritoneal dialysis.

Sometimes, this catheter becomes obstructed and causes serious complications — some of which require surgery. DialySnake safely unblocks catheters within five minutes and costs less than $20. The team plans to use their prize to file a patent and begin introducing the product to emergency rooms.

VRiT is transforming surgical care with a handheld bioprinter that eliminates the need to transplant skin from one part of the body to another, enabling advanced, minimally invasive procedures. “[Winning Pitch Perfect] is about building momentum… it helps us stay on track and [gives us] just a little bit more motivation to keep the work going,” said Sushant Singh, CEO and co-founder of VRiT, in an interview with The Varsity.

Students interested in participating in pitch competitions are encouraged to visit H2i’s website for information on similar upcoming events.