Extreme Tech Challenge Announces 2021 Category Winners Headed To Global Finals

PALO ALTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#NextGenXTC–Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC), the world’s largest startup competition focused on purpose-driven innovation, announced today seven Category Winners selected to compete at the XTC 2021 Global Finals presented by TechCrunch on July 22, 2021. Audiences from around the world are invited to join the virtual event (free registration) to watch these top contenders compete for the crown of XTC 2021 Global Winner.

Category finalists competed across seven tracks including AgTech & FoodTech; CleanTech & Energy; EdTech; Enabling Tech; FinTech; HealthTech; and Mobility & Smart Cities.

The Category Winners are:

AgTech & FoodTech: Wasteless, a patented fully automated AI solution that applies optimal markdowns in real-time, based on products’ expiration dates and other factors – to reduce food waste and increase profitability.
CleanTech & Energy: Mining and Process Solutions, a non-toxic, natural alternative to cyanide and acid for the extraction of metals in mining operations.
EdTech: Testmaster, a mobile app that helps secondary students in West African countries successfully pass their matriculation exams. “The best private tutor in one’s pocket” delivers short, intuitive and accessible exercises and tutorial videos.
Enabling Tech: Dot Inc., the maker of the first tactile monitor that can enable STEM education, visual works, and games for the 285M visually impaired people worldwide. Dot Inc. is expanding its technologies to help all disabled people to access public information in the smart cities through barrier-free kiosks and IoT infrastructures.
FinTech: Hillridge Technology has developed weather-based parametric insurance for farmers to help protect crop yields and livestock.
HealthTech: Genetika+ combines genetics, patient history and unique brain biomarkers to help those suffering from depression, thereby helping to save patients’ lives, physicians’ time and healthcare payers’ costs.
Mobility & Smart Cities: Fotokite helps public safety teams save lives with elevated and actionable intelligence at the push of a button. Fully autonomous and field-proven, Fotokite solutions are used daily by firefighters and first responders to assess, visualize, and document their incidents within seconds of arriving on scene.

Learn about the entire XTC 2021 Global Finalist Cohort and watch them pitch at the Category Finals on the XTC Youtube Channel.

Competition evaluators narrowed a field of over 3,700 applicants from 92 countries building tech startups that are working to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The seven XTC Category Winners will share the stage at the Global Finals event alongside four Special Award Winners: COVID-19 Innovation Award, Female Founder Award, Ethical AI Award, and the People’s Choice Award which is new this year. For the first time, the public is invited to vote for their favorite startup finalist. The deadline to vote is July 11, 2021.

These Category and Special Awards Winners will pitch at the XTC 2021 Global Finals presented by TechCrunch, competing for the crown of XTC 2021 Global Winner.

“We’re currently in the fifth wave of technology evolution – an era driven by data and AI, which are accelerating the number of applications that can disrupt every industry due to the timely availability of actionable data-driven insights,” said Young Sohn, Co-Founder of Extreme Tech Challenge, Chairman of the Board at HARMAN International, and Former Corporate President and Chief Strategy Officer at Samsung Electronics. “This year’s XTC winners, applying AI, blockchain, deep analytics and more across our seven categories, strongly show how this fifth wave can make the world a radically better place.”

“The capital markets are signalling hard by giving incredibly big market valuations to companies that are profitable businesses, that also deliver sustainability-oriented innovation. The world’s financial markets now recognize that unless businesses do something good for this planet, that this planet may not exist – and that there are investable companies that can be part of the solution.” said Bill Tai, Co-Founder of Extreme Tech Challenge and Partner Emeritus at Charles River Ventures.

The XTC 2021 Global Finals presented by TechCrunch is free to attend, open to the public, and will be held virtually on July 22, 2021. The Special Awards Winners will be announced then. Register for the event to find out who is crowned overall winner of XTC 2021 and to learn more about the new partnerships and regional competition expansions for the XTC 2022 competition.

The event will feature world-renowned executives and investors including Young Sohn and Bill Tai, Co-Founders of XTC; Regina Dugan, President & CEO, Wellcome Leap and Former Director of The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); Lars Reger, CTO & Executive Vice President, NXP Semiconductors; Jerry Yang, Founding Partner, AME Cloud Ventures and Co-Founder & Former CEO, Yahoo!, and Michael Zeisser, Managing Partner, FMZ Ventures.

About Extreme Tech Challenge

Extreme Tech Challenge is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit corporation whose mission is to empower startups creating new tech innovations to address global challenges. It is the world’s largest ecosystem and competition for purpose-driven technology inspired by the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Extreme Tech Challenge™ competition is supported by leading corporations, venture capital investors, foundations, policymakers, universities and tech conferences to give exceptional startups the potential for global visibility, the opportunity to raise capital, the ability to network with global leaders, and access to world-class mentorship to help them pioneer technological breakthroughs that address our most extreme global challenges. A complete list of XTC partners and how to join can be found at www.extremetechchallenge.org.