Argentum Electronics Wins $250,000 N100 Tech Start-up Competition for PoE Product

Feb 13, 2019

Clean Energy Zone company Argentum Electronics, founded by Ryerson electrical engineering student Bolis Ibrahim, has won the sixth N100 Evolution technology start-up competition. With it, comes the coveted first prize of $250,000 in investment from Northumberland Community Futures Development Corporation. (Shown in photo: Bolis Ibrahim making his pitch at the N100 Evolution technology startup competition.)

Argentum Electronics has developed a new Power-over-Ethernet (POE) product. PoE is where a single cable provides both a secure data connection and power to electrical devices. Argentum’s patent-pending technology enables more power to be delivered to devices, such as LED lighting, through POE.

“Winning the N100 competition is a game changer for us,” says Bolis. “With this capital injection we will be able to get our Smart Power-over-Ethernet Controller (SPEC) product line ready for manufacturing and market entry. Ultimately this will put our company in a highly investable position.”

The sixth edition of this multi-stage biennial competition began last July in Cobourg, Ontario. A total of 44 start-ups were eventually whittled down to one winner. Each business competed across a series of challenges, including pitch competitions, business planning activities and boardroom presentations, while receiving mentorship from industry experts.

The startup has the support of partners including Microsoft’s IoT and AI Insider Lab in Redmond, Washington and the University of Toronto’s Impact Centre, and has already demonstrated the technology’s potential through a pilot project with WZMH Architects in Toronto. This victory will help Argentum expand its team and take the product to market.

This win continues a remarkable run of success for Argentum, which has previously won the Norman Esch Engineering and Innovation Award, the Ontario Centres of Excellence David McFadden Energy Entrepreneur Challenge, the RECODE Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award, the Global Student Entrepreneur Award and, most recently, the gold medal at KEPCO’s Digital Transformation Conference held in Gwangju, South Korea in October 2018.

Find out more about Argentum Electronics
Photo source: Ryerson Centre for Urban Energy

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