$100,000 Awarded to High-Performing Texas Tech Startups

By: Glenys Young 

The Presidents' Innovation Awards recognize early-stage companies exemplifying innovation.

The Innovation Hub at Research Park today (Feb. 19) announced the winners of its annual Presidents' Innovation Awards, through which the presidents of Texas Tech University and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) recognize startups that exemplify innovation and commercialization.

The awards give early-stage startups space and critical access to equipment to become revenue-generating companies.

Texas Tech University President's Awards

EViroTECH LLC: A company that integrates electrochemical technology and biomedical engineering to combat infections and viral transmitted diseases including COVID-19.
Founder: Gerardine Botte, Texas Tech faculty member
Award: $25,000

Captivist: A research and advisory firm creating a mobile application providing customers detailed information to make informed purchasing decisions pertaining to the quality, environmental and sociological health of a product.
Founder: Joyous Njoku, Texas Tech student
Award: $10,000

CritiColl LLC: An application that provides a stress-saving platform for professors with tools to promote academic success for students.
Founder: Matheus Pagotti, Texas Tech student
Award: $5,000

TTUHSC President's Awards

Surgic LLC: The next major step in medical education technology for future health care providers and academic institutions.
Founders: Travis Reiss and Kyle Fenn, Texas Tech alumni; Arham Siddiqui, Texas Tech alumnus and TTUHSC student; and Paul Egan, Texas Tech faculty member
Award: $25,000

Culturally Informed Pain Diagnosis and Relief (CIPDAR): A company that develops digital health diagnostic technology, providing a multilingual, multimodal and multidimensional pain assessment and management tool that is easily accessible to patients from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, especially those with low English proficiency.
Founder: Shin Ye Kim, Texas Tech faculty member
Award: $15,000

Business Planning System: A company changing the way business plans are written to obtain financing for early-stage bio-medical startups with limited financial and business experience.
Founder: Tracy Shea, West Texas community member
Award: $10,000