UH students vying for venture capital

Advertiser Staff

Eight teams of University of Hawai'i students yesterday made it to the final round of the school's business-plan competition and will present their entrepreneurial ideas to judges Saturday at Stan Sheriff Center.

Three teams will share $30,000 in cash prizes, but the best plans stand to attract venture capital financing.

In addition, the Manoa Innovation Center will provide the highest-scoring technology team with $5,000 toward office space, furniture and computer work stations. The top health care team will receive $5,000 toward residency at the Hawai'i Health Care Business Incubator.

Thirty-nine teams with more than 100 members entered the contest, a first-time event created by the College of Business Administration's Center for Entrepreneurship and E-Business to inspire risk-taking and business creation among students.

The finalists are Alohacare Intelligent Monitoring (telemedicine); INCA (education technology); KimcheeNet (Internet service provider); Meira Networks (software for backbone optical networks); TeaSpot (tea house chain); Ecospan Systems (agricultural waste-based building materials manufacturing); Team InfoShroud (remote network security monitoring); and TransMedCom (online medical communications).