The 2025 Ivey Business Plan Competition was won by SinuStim from Johns Hopkins University, which is building a mouthguard-like device that uses electrical signals to regulate hyperactive nerves in the nasal cavity for patients struggling with chronic rhinosinusitis.
The venture was represented at the competition by Sandhya Tiku, and Oriol Cuxart Pérez.
The 27th edition of the competition was held on January 23-25, 2025 at the Ivey Business School and Ronald D. Schmeichel Building for Entrepreneurship, and brought together 14 teams from The University of Arkansas, Johns Hopkins University, McMaster University, Michigan State University, University of Toronto, and Western University.
Second place at the competition was secured by Canadian Boxing Champion Shane McCarthy and his venture, Drago Boxing, which has created a dual wrap roller that is faster and more user-friendly than any other product in the market. McCarthy is a Mechanical Engineering student at Western and recently won the Startup Challenge.
Third place was secured by Xatoms, which uses patented AI and quantum chemistry technology to discover new materials that can purify water from bacteria, viruses, and pesticides. The venture has already discovered 8 patented materials, each of them purifying water from different types of contaminants, ranging from chemical pollutants such as DDT to biological pathogens such as E.coli and cholera. The venture was represented by CEO and University of Toronto student Diana Virgovicova, and Ivey HBA ’26 Candidate, Shirley Zhong.
Fourth place was NerView Surgical Inc. from McMaster University, led by Mann Parikh. The startup’s patent-pending technology incorporates optical imaging and computer vision for non-invasive nerve visualization to help surgeons identify and localize nerves to protect during surgery with the goal of reducing unintentional nerve damage that can have devastating consequences for patients.
The competition keynote was delivered by Olympic gold-medalist, and co-founder of Step Sciences, Alex Kopacz, BESc’13, and Ash Singh, HBA ’04, led a Go-To-Market workshop. Teams also had the opportunity to receive feedback from a panel of mentors with expertise ranging from technology commercialization, and fintech, to renewable energy and education. The mentors included Martin Smith, Kayvon Khalili, MBA ’00, BA ’90, David Billson, Paul Okundaye, HBA ’19, David Muir, PhD ’94, Amir Shenouda, QS ’24, Rene Frey, HBA ’03, MBA ’06, Dominic Lim, PhD ’09, Andrew Leest, and Stephen Bolton, MBA ’07.
The panel of judges for the 2025 edition included Albert Behr (Behr & Associates Inc.), David Berg (BergTec Associates Inc.), Bas van Berkel, MBA ’06 (BerQ RNG Inc.), Marvin Bishnoi, MBA ’22 (Ipsen), Michel Hepp (PremiseHQ SaaS Inc), Rob Hunter, HBA ’07 (Speaker Ventures), Thomas Kalafatis, HBA '97, MBA '02 (Hullwright Advisors), Simran Kaur (HyperAccelerator), Umad Khan, MBA ’22 (BerQ RNG Inc.), Bruce Lamb, HBA ’85 (Avalanche Search Marketing Inc.), Rajah Lehal, MBA ’06 (Cobalt AI / Clausehound), Jacoline Loewen (Loewen Capital Ltd.), Mark Mauleesan, MBA ’16 (MRX North Communications/Medskool Reviews), Ilham Punjani (Algoma University), Morgan Rosenberg, HBA ’15 (caregiVR), Colleen Sharen, MBA ’93 (Western University), Ash Singh, HBA ’04 (Hyper Accelerator), Steve Suske, MBA ’77 (Suske Capital Inc.), Shari Walczak, HBA ’94 (The Garden), and Michael White, MBA’00 (IBK Capital Corp).