2020 Completed

2020 NVC

Pandemic Resilience and First MIE Winner

Awards

Category	Place	Team	Prize	Project
Grand Prize	Winner	Baby Box Zarina Bahadur (MIE '20)	$15,000	AI-powered subscription for age-tailored baby products (0-3 years).
Audience Favorite	Winner	Bottle Built Aryan Ghanadan	$1,000	Affordable housing construction using recycled PETE plastics.
Track Award (Consumer Products)	1st	Baby Box Zarina Bahadur (MIE '20)	$10,000	See Grand Prize Winner.
Track Award (Consumer Products)	2nd	Voltek	$5,000	Blind spot detection device for bicycles using camera sensor technology to reduce accidents and collisions involving bicycles.
Track Award (Consumer Services)	1st	No Decaf Allowed Jim Robertson	$10,000	Premium coffee subscription delivering fresh beans from roasters.
Track Award (Consumer Services)	2nd	Prophet Predictive Modeling	$5,000	AI-based money management services for accredited investors.
Track Award (Business Products)	1st	Ardha Health Drew Park	$10,000	Collaboration software for post-acute care (PAC) teams.
Track Award (Business Products)	2nd	Instinct Sumanth Pallamreddy	$5,000	Software measuring real-time stress levels to improve productivity.
Track Award (Life Sciences)	1st	ImmunoTarget Stephanie Hachey	$10,000	Personalized cancer immunotherapies.
Track Award (Life Sciences)	2nd	CannTek Oren	$5,000	Unique electrochemical device to detect current levels of THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana.
Track Award (Social Enterprise)	1st	Conshus Clothing Arneeb Mahbub, Parth	$10,000	Sustainable fair-trade fashion brand aiming to financially empower underprivileged women.
Track Award (Social Enterprise)	2nd	Bottle Built Aryan Ghanadan	$5,000	See Audience Favorite Winner.

Primary source: Merage press release.

Post-competition outcomes

• Baby Box Operating Raised $1.2M oversubscribed pre-seed round in 2023. Lead investors per TechCrunch: XRC Labs (referenced as XRC Ventures on its own portfolio page), Sunstone Fund, Salt Lake City Angels, and a California Crescent fund,...
• Bottle Built No public outcome Aryan Ghanadan's PETE-plastic housing concept has no traceable post-2020 company site or funding announcements.
• ImmunoTarget Operating Now ImmunoTarget Therapeutics, Inc. Stephanie Hachey, PhD is founder/CEO/CSO. Tracxn lists company as unfunded as of 2025. UCI conflict-of-interest disclosure on a March 2025 bioRxiv preprint confirms still active and...
• Conshus Clothing No public outcome Beyond the 2020 NVC win and an F6S profile, no surviving e-commerce site, social presence, or news after 2020-2021.
• No Decaf Allowed Acquired Subscription absorbed into Moongoat Coffee Roasters' subscription program in December 2022 (asset/subscriber transfer rather than equity transaction).
• Voltek No public outcome Blind spot detection device for bicycles using camera sensors. No traceable post-competition activity.
• Prophet Predictive Modeling No public outcome AI-based money management services for accredited investors. No traceable post-competition activity. Name corrected 2026-05-12 from 'Prophet Modeling' to 'Prophet Predictive Modeling' per Merage 2020 press release.
• Ardha Health No public outcome Collaboration software for post-acute care (PAC) teams. No traceable post-competition commercial activity past 2020.
• Instinct No public outcome Software measuring real-time stress levels to improve productivity. No traceable post-competition activity (a separate UCI wearable-stress research project is unrelated).
• CannTek No public outcome Electrochemical device for detecting THC levels (law enforcement use). No traceable post-competition activity past 2020 award.