Organised by the Entrepreneurship Society of University of Moratuwa together with the University Business Linkage Cell, Mora Ventures is a program aimed at budding entrepreneurs completing their higher education at Sri Lankan Universities. The initiative is currently pursuing its ambitious goal of discovering Sri Lanka’s first USD 1 Billion Startup Unicorn by the year 2027.
The fifth iteration of the program, Mora Ventures 5.0 kicked off back in October 2019. Over 60 teams applied to take part in the competition. Once shortlisted, teams had to undergo several workshops with each focusing on a different aspect of building a successful startup.
These were followed up by three days of mini-pitches on the 19th, 20th and 21st December 2019. Eventually, it came down to 8 finalist teams, along with 2 reserve teams. These teams were then assigned mentors from the startup community. The idea was to obtain one month of one-to-one mentoring for improvements of their business models, pitching and idea validation and implementation.
The finalists
AgXspot
AgXspot aims to revive agriculture by making drones accessible to anyone to provide innovative solutions in agriculture. The team hopes that this will make way as a one-stop solution for harmful pesticides, unpredictable weather, cost of production and stressful livelihood of farmers.
AgXspot is capable of land imaging, plant health analysis, path deciding and also spraying the relevant substance onto the plants. Additionally, health analysis techniques are used for various types of crops with multispectral imaging and artificial intelligence. This essentially improves the yield quality, quantity, and efficiency of a farming business.
CUCA
Being bedridden can be critical for those among the geriatric population. Prolonged exposure can result in bedsores. This becomes severe with the lack of aeration, heat production and microbial activity.
CUCA is a thin mat that reduces the risks of bedsores via its material design inbuilt with the monitoring technique for detecting the posture of an individual. The monitoring unit alerts the caregiver regarding his/her prolonged posture. Hence, the caregiver can assist the individual to change the lying posture on the bed. In case this sounds familiar, the team also pitched their idea at the last edition of Yarl Geek Challenge.
Deal makers
Deal makers want to provide a sustainable, eco-friendly and long-lasting solution for advertising. The idea is to implement a digital
advertising board. This will be connected to an app where the general public and advertisers can utilise it.
Any advertiser can upload any advertisement from anywhere in the world, choose the place of advertisement and also has the ability to link necessary information for a willing customer.
Evenza
Worried about hosting an event? Looking for the best of best choices of supplies? Plan and host the event on your own in no time with Evenza. Its a platform connecting all type of event supplies providers with the users.
Frued
Frued is an affordable sleep apnea detection device with high accuracy, which is a simple and convenient alternative for the highly expensive sleep study. The objective is to diagnose people who are suffering from these diseases and send them the right direction for the right treatment.
IntelliFashion
This is a SaaS-based AI fashion and apparel product development system. The hope is to mitigate the issues in the fashion and apparel product development process and bridge the gap between customer and manufacturer.
Wanderers
Blood Potassium level is one of the important parameters of our body which directly leads to death if not maintained in the optimum range. Unstable levels of potassium can lead to cardiac arrest. Patients who undergo dialysis treatment may have unpredictable Potassium variations. So they’re in need to monitor blood Potassium concentration regularly and especially during dialysis treatment.
Currently, Potassium levels are measured only by a blood test before and after dialysis, there aren’t any method to monitor blood potassium level in real time. Wanderers’ device monitors the Potassium level in the blood by non-invasively in real time.
Reserved Teams
Heavenz.lk
This is an online platform that brings construction service providers and
seekers into one stage so both parties can save time, evaluate market prices and pick the best service provider. The aim of this initiative is to regulate communications in the construction industry by building a virtual society that everyone can benefit. The idea is to create and maintain a smart, simple and attractive web platform which would enable all the professionals, companies, individuals, fresh graduates and undergraduates who relate to the construction industry to create profiles giving exposure to their talent and creativity.
AKURU
“AKURU” is a mobile app that wants to overcome the problem of having less interactions between parents and kids. The app also aims to provide hands-on strategies that the kids need. It simplifies the relationship and makes it easy for parents. With AKURU, a child can learn on his own without any support from others.
AKURU provides an interactive learning method using image processing technologies, augmented reality and audio matching. This solution enables children to interact with the book in a variety of ways which would be essential for improve motor functions and cognitive abilities of children in Early Childhood Education.
The Mora Ventures 5.0 Grand Finale
The finalists are to pitch on 30th January 2020 at the University of Moratuwa in front of an elite panel of judges comprising entrepreneurs and investors. The winners will be awarded cash prizes, awards and certificates and further support from the Enterprise at the University of Moratuwa, a startup co-working space. In case you’re curious, you can drop by to come and witness the Mora Ventures 5.0 finals.