Six teams are advancing to the UC Santa Barbara New Venture Competition Finals after coming out on top at last week’s fair, where students pitched their business ideas

Students spend eight months learning how to run a business, form teams and develop ideas for startups in the New Venture Competition, which is hosted by the UCSB Technology Management Program. 

UC Santa Barbara students, staff, local community members, and representatives from sponsoring companies went from booth to booth during the May 2 fair, hearing pitches from team members of the prospective startups.

Attendees filled out evaluation sheets to help judge the teams and the six chosen finalists are: Adomi, MoreSolar, Okra Systems, Snip, Soilight, and Veneta.

According to UCSB, Adomi “helps homeowners monetize their largest asset, while MoreSolar addresses the inefficiencies of soiling on large-scale solar installations. Okra, meanwhile, provides a solution for engineers selecting and programming microprocessors, while Snip offers a novel way to share podcasts. Soilight utilizes soil to provide a continuous source of energy, and Veneta provides software for chemical labs.”

Those teams will pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges for $40,000 in prize money at the May 24 New Venture Competition Finals. 

The finals will be held at 3 p.m. in the Corwin Pavilion on the UCSB campus, and the event is free and open to the public. 

— Noozhawk intern Dhiraj Nallapaneni can be reached at news@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkSociety, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.