Tekcapital provides a timely update on portfolio company, Guident Ltd.
(AIM: TEK ) has updated shareholders that its wholly owned portfolio company Guident Ltd, ("Guident") has won the Florida Atlantic University (‘FAU’) Tech Runway® Annual tech Launch competition as one of the most promising start-ups in South Florida.
A panel of judges, including successful entrepreneurs, technology investors, entrepreneurship professors, economic development professionals, philanthropists, and commercial bankers selected Guident as the winner of the competition.
The judges were convinced that the company seeking to create a Remote Monitoring and Control Center, (‘RMCC’) in Florida for autonomous vehicles applying artificial intelligence, and their first use-case for 'zero-touch' ground-based delivery of groceries and medicines, would be the right choice to create significant value in South Florida and Nationwide.
The competition also provides the most promising start-ups and talented entrepreneurs in South Florida with an opportunity to join a year-long program that offers competition winners ‘best-in-class’ instruction, mentoring, networking, marketing, and capital-raising assistance, co-working space, events, intern support, and other vital programs.
"The 2020 Florida Atlantic University Tech Runway Launch Competition was a huge success on all levels," said Rhys L. Williams, managing director of FAU Tech Runway®.
He added, "Entrepreneurs submitted a record number of applications and out of more than 200 contestants, Guident, a company that develops software solutions for the autonomous vehicle market with their first use-case of an advanced artificial intelligent-assisted, remote tele-monitoring and control center came out on top of the competition.”
Outlook
Guident's immediate objective is to use its proprietary IP to build and operate the first RMCC in the state of Florida for ground-based delivery drones and autonomous vehicles. Guident plans to use the FAU incubator to accommodate its near-term growth plans and testing of its pilot RMCC on commercial delivery drones.
The Market
According to Allied Market Research "the autonomous vehicle ("AV") market is expected to reach $556 billion by 2026 with a CAGR of 39%”.
Furthermore, contactless or "touch-free" delivery is in high demand due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
Guident therefore believes this increased demand will accelerate the roll-out of land-based delivery drones for food and medicines to improve their availability and reduce the costs of these deliveries.
Shares in TEK have performed strongly from the start of this calendar year at 5p to open up 4% today at 14p.
Harald Braun, Guident's Chairman and CEO said: "The selection process was extremely challenging, given the very large number of strong entries with compelling business solutions and we are very pleased that Guident was selected as the winner of the competition. Our next step is to take full advantage of the brilliant program the FAU TechRunway incubator is providing to young companies."
Dr Clifford Gross, Executive Chairman at Tekcapital, commented: "We are delighted to see the significant progress of Guident Ltd and we are confident they have the right leadership, strategy and intellectual property to make a meaningful contribution to the safety of AV's and delivery drones."
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