Spring 2024

Meet the winning projects

The winners of the 2024 Walleye Tank Spring Opener were announced and honored with iconic Walleye Tank trophies and oversized checks. Here are the winning companies:

Junior Anglers:

Winner: $4,000 award

• Empower Independence Co: Simply Shower
  Simply Shower provides a magnetic system with gripped sleeves and a wall board to enhance accessibility, self-care, energy conservation, independence and safety for people with reduced mobility.

Runners-up: $1,000 award

• Vertex Medical Solutions: Vertex 360 Platform
  Vertex is a digital health startup developing a trauma-informed, social care coordination platform to address health-related social needs of vulnerable patient populations.

• Emergense
  The Emergense diagnostics test integrates a vast array of variables and data points to predict prostate cancer recurrence and aggressiveness.

Mid-Level Reelers

Winner: $10,000 award

• Objective Biotechnology
  Objective Biotechnology is commercializing research laboratory equipment, such as an automated microinjector, developed at the University of Minnesota.

Runner-up: $4,000 award

• Davenport SAF-T Systems: SAF-T VEST
  The SAF-T VEST, a smart technology designed for older adults, will detect a fall in real time and inflate airbags, protecting fracture-prone areas of the body.