Mala the Brand wins top prize at SFU’s largest entrepreneurship competition

Mala the Brand is an environmentally conscious start-up that helps plant a tree with each purchase of its hand-poured, eco-friendly soy candles. Mala the Brand won the top prize in the ninth annual Coast Capital Savings Venture Prize competition, taking home a $35,000-prize package. Founder Melody Lim, a Communications graduate, competed against Simon Fraser University’s brightest entrepreneurs in a series of pitch-offs to claim the top title.

Set amidst the disruption of COVID-19, this year’s reconfigured Coast Capital Savings Venture Prize competition reflected the spirit of entrepreneurship with resilient, innovative solutions from the university community. Pitches were modified so competing ventures could prepare for and deliver micro presentations online with live Q&A.

Venture Prize, presented by SFU’s Coast Capital Savings Venture Connection, is the largest entrepreneurship competition at the university. Competitors are filtered into two streams: the Idea Stream and the Venture Stream. The former celebrates ventures in the ideation stage and the latter is designed for fully operating businesses. Competitors faced-off in two intensive rounds of pitches to a panel of industry judges to win the Top Venture and Top Idea prizes respectively.

Open to SFU staff, faculty, students and recent alumni, this year’s competition attracted a record-breaking 59 entries, with applicants representing all eight SFU faculties. The 2020 competitors are diverse, from social enterprises supporting agricultural workers to artificial intelligence companies creating aerial robots.

Top Venture winner, Lim creates each candle by hand and commits to being as sustainable as possible. Her social enterprise partners with Tree Era to plant trees in North America through each candle purchase.

“Winning Venture Prize is a game changer and will allow me to scale my business,” says Lim. “This was my first time pitching my company and I learned how to integrate what I personally stand for into the values of my business.

“My goal is to provide consumers with an earth-friendly alternative to the current toxic candles in the market.”

GameSeta took the Top Idea prize, winning a $5,000 cash prize and entry into the Venture Connection incubator program.

GameSeta aims to integrate electronic sports (eSports) programs into high schools. eSports are growing rapidly in Canada and an organized program can prepare students to adapt to new technologies and the future of work.

“I have always been passionate about video games because they helped me acquire problem solving skills,” says Tawanda Masawi, co-founder of GameSeta. “Our company goal is to enable students with a passion for gaming to gain the same recognition that other sports categories provide to their participants.”

The Venture Prize competition reflects Venture Connection’s commitment to support early-stage businesses and innovative entrepreneurship in the broader SFU community.

Winners of the Venture Prize awards are:

Venture Prize award: Mala the Brand

Idea Prize award: GameSeta

Idea Prize first runner-up: Elemeno

Idea Prize second runner-up: The Kelp Collective

Top Local Impact award: Luv The Grub

Top Digital Platform award: LumenWire

Top Research and Development award: Optican Systems

Female Founder award: Viridiana Perez, NANOSentinel

Social Impact award: SPARK Foundation

SFU Alumni Founder award: Labora

SFU Work Integrated Learning award: Rochelle Prasad, SPARK Foundation

Since 2008, Coast Capital Savings has been a key partner of Venture Connection in supporting entrepreneurial excellence at SFU.

“Although it looks a bit different this year, Coast Capital is excited to be a partner in the SFU Venture Connection program,” says Maureen Young, director, community leadership at Coast Capital Savings. “This partnership is one of the tangible ways that Coast Capital demonstrates our commitment to investing in initiatives that help youth achieve what is important in their lives and build a strong financial future. We are delighted to recognize the inspiring young entrepreneurs and future change makers of our communities and empower them to reach their full potential.”

Says Joy Johnson, SFU vice-president, research and international, "I would like to congratulate this year’s applicants and award winners. The innovations showcased at the ninth annual Coast Capital Savings Venture Prize exemplify SFU’s commitment to helping our students and researchers move their ideas into action to solve problems that matter."

"We are thankful for Coast Capital Savings’ ongoing participation and commitment to the Coast Capital Savings Venture Connection Program, since 2008," adds Johnson.

ABOUT SFU’s COAST CAPITAL SAVINGS VENTURE CONNECTION PROGRAM

Since 2008, the Coast Capital Savings Venture Connection program at SFU has been providing support for university ventures, from initial idea to business validation. It offers an early-stage business incubator, mentorship, co-op terms, competitions, networking, speaker events, workshops, seminars and other business resources. SFU’s flagship entrepreneurship program has supported more than 13,000 individuals from the SFU community, ranging from students, staff, faculty and recent alumni, and has provided startup services to more than 230 early ventures.

ABOUT COAST CAPITAL SAVINGS

Coast Capital Savings is Canada’s largest credit union by membership and B.C.’s first credit union to become a federal credit union. Owned by its 572,000 members, Coast Capital offers banking and investment services digitally and through its 52 branches in the Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Okanagan, and Vancouver Island regions of British Columbia. An Imagine Canada Caring Company and a Certified B Corporation in recognition of its social performance, Coast Capital invests 10 per cent of its bottom line in youth-focused community organizations, programs, partnerships and events. The credit union has been recognized as one of Canada's Most Admired Corporate Cultures™ and holds a Best Managed Companies Platinum Club designation. Coast Capital has a history of introducing innovative products to help their members achieve financial wellbeing including Canada’s first free chequing account from a full-service financial institution and Help Extras®, enabling members to invest in their future. To learn more, visit coastcapitalsavings.com.

ABOUT SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

As Canada’s engaged university, SFU works with communities, organizations and partners to create, share and embrace knowledge that improves life and generates real change. We deliver a world-class education with lifelong value that shapes change-makers, visionaries and problem-solvers. We connect research and innovation to entrepreneurship and industry to deliver sustainable, relevant solutions to today’s problems. With campuses in British Columbia’s three largest cities – Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey – SFU has eight faculties that deliver 193 undergraduate degree programs and 127 graduate degree programs to more than 35,000 students. The university now boasts more than 160,000 alumni residing in 143 countries.