Showdowns in Barcelona traditionally involve a red cape and some very pointy horns, but last week, Communitech HYPERDRIVE company PumpUp stepped into the ring for a very different type of bout.
PumpUp was one of 13 teams from around the world competing at the University Mobile Challenge, held at the GSMA Mobile World Congress, the world's largest mobile industry exhibition, held in Barcelona.
Representing the University of Waterloo, PumpUp was facing off against incredible teams with very big ideas. We're talking Harvard, Berkeley, Singapore, Estonia and more.
"It was an intense competition - from people solving border wait times, to people leveraging mobile tech to help Alzheimer's patients," said PumpUp co-founder Phil Jacobson.
Despite running on only two hours sleep, and jostled by jetlag, PumpUp made it to the final round of the pitch competition, and then brought it home to claim second place.
The winning team from Berkeley was pitching a product that increases access to clean water for people in developing nations, all while empowering local businesses. "An incredible venture doing some amazing social good and solving a massive problem," Phil wrote to HYPERDRIVE in an email after the win. "An amazing team to come second to, if I do say so myself!"
