Meet the Extreme Tech Challenge 2022 Global Finals category finalists and special award winners

Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC), the world’s largest startup competition focused on purpose-driven innovation, and sponsor of TechCrunch Sessions: Climate, has chosen 10 category finalists and three Special Award winners to compete at the XTC 2022 Global Finals at the climate conference on June 14, 2022 at UC Berkeley.

Due to the exceptional applicant pool this year, we will also showcase 10 category runners-up on the Global Finals stage. 

Meet the XTC category winners and runners-up:

Advanced Materials

• Winner: Mi Terro creates ocean degradable and home compostable packaging materials made from agricultural waste to replace single-use plastic and paper.
• Runner-up: MicroTau prints microscopic patterns inspired by nature to reduce drag and produce properties including anti-fouling, anti-bacterial and hydrophobic effects. 

Agtech and Food

• Winner: Amai Proteins produces healthy, tasty and affordable proteins for the mass food market. Its first product is a hyper-sweet protein as a zero-calorie, healthy and food-compliant sugar substitute.
• Runner-up: Nofence, the world’s first commercial virtual fencing solution for livestock, where animals are controlled by GPS-collars and an app. 

Biotech and Medical Devices

• Winner: UniFAHS provides customized phage-based products to eliminate serious bacteria causing food borne illnesses, especially those that are present in livestock and aquaculture.
• Runner-up: MicroFuse Technologies is a software company that provides expertise in software development, custom programming, artificial intelligence, brand identity and network security solutions. Their focus clientele are: health sector, education, sustainable development.

Cleantech, Energy and Environment

• Winner: reActo offers a sustainable solution for the toughest-to-treat industrial wastewater with Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) that is currently incinerated.
• Runner-up: BeFC offers a sustainable and eco-friendly energy solution for low-power electronics. It produces paper-based biofuel cells to replace conventional miniature batteries found in portable or wearable electronic devices. 

Digital Health

• Winner: Virtuleap combines neuroscience and virtual reality to help increase attention levels, and address cognitive illnesses, disorders and learning challenges.
• Runner-up: Virusight Diagnostic, effectively detects pathogens and resolves the current pandemic by enabling access to accurate and ultra rapid testing for COVID-19 anywhere, anytime.

Edtech

• Winner: Abwaab, an online learning platform that allows secondary-school students to learn at their own pace, test themselves and get ahead with expert tutors anytime and anywhere.
• Runner-up: Kide Science offers an engaging model to break the mold and give teachers the confidence to teach inquiry-based lessons with play and stories to children aged 3-8.

Enabling Tech

• Winner: Incooling builds custom-made HPC servers dedicated to achieving the fastest and greenest computers in the world. 
• Runner-up: swIDch brings easy, fast, accurate and secure authentication to every digital identity in daily life, business and even in the off-the-network environment. 

Fintech

• Winner: RealKey, an innovative provider of digital mortgage technologies that let bank and non-bank mortgage loan originators (MLOs) streamline the mortgage processing experience for borrowers.
• Runner-up: MyTM provides mass transit e-ticketing, branchless banking, microfinance services (loan lead generation through agent network) and financial services.

Mobility

• Winner: AELER Technologies is transforming logistics by bringing advanced technologies to the container and the ecosystem that surrounds it. The UNIT ONE container is stronger, insulated, super smart, green and increases payload.
• Runner-up: New Frontier Aerospace, its rocket-powered hypersonic aircraft get passengers and urgent cargo anywhere on Earth in two hours or less — cleaner than jets.

Sustainable Smart Cities

• Winner: Empower.eco generates value out of plastic waste, enabling collectors, recyclers, brands and consumers to make a real impact on the environment.
• Runner-up: BioElements aims to transform polluting products into environmentally friendly solutions with an ecological alternative to conventional plastic. 
• Runner-up: Quiron Digital develops algorithms for remote monitoring of forest threats such as pests, diseases and wildfires through data from satellites.

Meet the XTC Special Award category winners:

• Female Founder:
  Incooling builds custom made HPC servers with its own proprietary two-phase cooling system that allows for extreme computing increase as well as increased energy efficiency on the cooling and power draw.
• People’s Choice:
  Savvie, an all-in-one app that helps cafe managers boost profitability, optimize operations and reduce waste via data-driven insights.
• UNICEF Edtech:
  Eduten, a gamified math learning platform that reaches one million teachers and students in more than 50 countries. It brings scientifically quantifiable improvement to learning results.
  
  CogniAble received a special mention. This machine-learning solution, available on the mobile applications of both experts and non-experts alike, helps provide early detection of (from videos) and therapy for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Meet the entire XTC 2022 Global Finalist Cohort 

Competition evaluators worked through a pool of nearly 2,000 startup applicants from almost 100 countries across the world that are working to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through tech and innovation.

XTC Category and Special Award Winners will pitch on the main stage at TechCrunch Sessions: Climate presented by Extreme Tech Challenge 2022 Global Finals on June 14 to be held in person at UC Berkeley. Join us at the event to see which company will be crowned the Grand Winner of XTC 2022. 

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.