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Gainesville, FL – Named after Dr. James Robert Cade, the lead inventor of Gatorade, the annual Cade Prize for Inventivity celebrates early-stage companies with great ideas and commercial potential. On Wednesday, September 25, fifteen finalist teams traveled from six states to gather at the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention for the final rounds of judging and the awards ceremony.
The grand prize winner, WriggleBrew, invented a process that uses bioreactors to decompose plastic waste and yield organic plant fertilizer. In addition to winning the grand prize, the Orlando-based company was named the Agriculture/Environmental category winner and was selected by local high school and college students as the winner of the Student Choice Award.
In total, WriggleBrew was awarded $60,000 in equity-free cash prizes and will receive hours of no-cost legal council, marketing and product development consulting. Following their win, Sam Baker, WriggleBrew's chief executive officer said “winning the grand prize was one of the most profoundly wonderful moments of my life. It's a beautiful feeling to have work you've striven and labored so hard on to be uplifted and recognized in such a way. The Cade is doing a great service to our culture by emphasizing the importance of Inventivity and by providing aspiring inventors, myself and team included, a forum to share our work and ideas.”
The winning teams of the remaining four categories each received $10,000 in cash as well as legal, marketing, and product development services. The category winners include:
While the majority of this year's winners were from Florida, "applications came in from all across the country, spanning 19 states," said Cade Museum's chief executive officer, Bradley Gamble. In addition to the cash prizes, all Cade Prize winners are offered support from the Cade team and its sponsors. "Not only did five incredible companies win cash and valuable legal and product development services, they now have the notoriety of being a Cade Prize winner. We hope that the exposure will help validate them in the eyes of investors, granting authorities, and potential clients," he added.
The fifteenth annual Cade Prize for Inventivity is sponsored by the Community Foundation of North Central Florida, Scott R. MacKenzie, The Florida High Tech Corridor, OneSixOne Ventures, Saliwanchik, Lloyd & Eisenschenk, 3D Musketeers, and NVision Strategies.
About
The Cade Prize for Inventivity — named after Dr. Robert Cade, lead inventor behind Gatorade — celebrates inventors and entrepreneurs, who, through an innovative invention, demonstrate a creative approach to addressing problems in their field of expertise. Learn more at cadeprize.org.
Media Contact
Julie DeCarmine, jdecarmine@cademuseum.org
