On December 8th the Gulliver final 2022 took place. There was fierce competition between ExCulture, Heliostrome and Baseline.
In the end the jury decided to reward unlock_ and PLNT alumni, ExCulture with the grand prize of €10.000. Mainly the stage that the different startups are in contributed to the hard decision. ExCulture works on a solution for the following: the production of some medicines is dependent on Heparin. Heparin is a substance that originates from pig intestines. Heparin is on a shortage list, amongst other things because of swine fever. Aisling Foley and Ilaria Poledri develop a new drug development method for lifesaving pharmaceuticals independent from animals.
The Special BioPartner €2500 prize for best life science idea went to Baseline. The jury argued that this €2500 will help Baseline a lot in the verification of her methods. The €2500 will be enough to further proof the concept and then attract more funding. The jury had good faith in the solution that baseline develops for hormones testing. Besides the prize money, baseline also won 6 month of free working space at PLNT.
About Gulliver
Gulliver is a foundation that supports young entrepreneurship in the Leiden region. To this end, it organizes an annual entrepreneurship competition and various knowledge sessions with diverse themes. Gulliver is made possible by a network of sponsors: Municipality of Leiden, Rabobank Leiden-Katwijk, Business Platform Schipholweg-Schuttersvel, Entrepreneurs Association Bio Science Park, Bio Partner and PLNT Leiden.
