Launch Academy Awards Winners of the Student Startup Challenge

After a three month residency at Launch Academy, two of the winners of Launch Academy’s Student Startup Challenge (SSC) pitched to a packed audience as part of Launch Academy’s Demo Day yesterday.

Launched in mid-April, the SSC encouraged student entrepreneurs to pitch their startup ideas and compete for $5,000 in cash prizes, three months of free office space, and mentorship.

Five SSC finalists were named in June and Cognilab and HelpHub went head-to-head last night for their share of the $5,000 in cash sponsored by LX Ventures.

Cognilab, a virtual laboratory that makes research easy, ended up taking home the top prize of $3,000 with HelpHub—essentially Dan Martell’s Clarity but for students—awarded the remainder of the purse.

But their individual pitches revealed that they’ve already moved on to much bigger stakes. Cognilab’s Jose Barrios announced that they have raised $50,000 to date and will be joining GrowLab’s upcoming fall cohort. HelpHub’s Miguel Kudry revealed that they have raised $250,000 from a Vancouver venture capital firm.