GUWAHATI, Nov 21 � DeNovo Sciences, Michigan, USA, founded by young Assamese scientist-entrepreneur Priyadarshini Gogoi who runs it with her husband and CEO Kalyan Handique, has won North America�s largest business plan competition Awards, the �Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition Award�.
DeNovo bagged the competition�s grand prize of $500,000 in cash. The grand prize of $25,000 for the student portion of the competition was awarded to University of Michigan for their company �Are you a human.�
DeNovo beat 312 other companies from around the world and had to pass multiple stages of the business plan competition including a written business plan round and multiple rounds of presentations and Q & A.
DeNovo which is engaged in cancer research and diagnosis has developed an instrument system and reagent kit that allows for the separation, detection and retrieval of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) from peripheral whole blood creating an alternative to traditionally painful and invasive biopsies.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, Priyadarshini said: �The award means a lot to us as an early stage start-up because it reduces the pressure to raise seed money from investors to remove some key technical hurdles in our technology. This new found prestige is also a reward for all the sacrifices we put in DeNovo Sciences for two years to make an impact on this world.�
She said that the money would go towards development and testing of the company�s product. �We hope this will help with the significant amount of venture capital we will need to raise next year as it is an ambitious endeavour,� she added.