UQ names 2025 Entrepreneurship Award winners and backs student founders with new scholarships

The University of Queensland has named four ventures and a student founder as standout winners at its 2025 Entrepreneurship and Innovation Awards and, in the same breath, launched a set of innovation scholarships to accelerate the next wave of student-led startups.

The awards, presented by UQ Ventures with support from UniQuest and the Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA), were held on August 20.

Alongside the trophies, UQ Ventures introduced new scholarships for student entrepreneurs. The inaugural recipients include Chaitanya Devane and Sam Gonzalez Altahona (Madison Group Enterprises Tech Entrepreneurship Scholarship), Patricia Carroll (Carl Hartmann Future Entrepreneurs Endowment) and Nicholas Egan (UQ Ventures Scholarship).

“These awards are a testament to the bold ideas and deep purpose driving UQ’s entrepreneurial community. From local impact to global reach, our founders are creating positive change that extends far beyond campus—and that’s something worth celebrating,” said Dr Veronica Nolan, Acting Head of Entrepreneurship at UQ.

“It’s exciting to our students and founders building momentum, many of whom start in our foundational programs like Curiosity and Validate, and progress through and beyond our Empower and ilab Accelerators.”

Student Entrepreneur of the Year went to Nicholas Egan, co-founder of MyHive, a community-powered safety and support app helping older Australians live independently. MyHive has been gathering momentum inside UQ’s ecosystem, taking first prize at the ilab Accelerator Pitch Night earlier this year.

Startup of the Year went to Polinate, a SaaS logistics platform that streamlines hospitality procurement and supplier fulfilment. Polinate positions itself as a simple, integrated ordering and invoicing layer for restaurants, with AI-assisted ordering and links into existing tools to cut admin.

Kolmi was named Social Enterprise of the Year for delivering English learning via WhatsApp at accessible price points, with an eye on Australia’s large cohort of IELTS and TOEFL candidates.

FaBA’s Food and Beverage Startup of the Year went to My PlantCo, which is leading a $5.6 million collaboration with the accelerator.

UQ merged its ilab and Momentum accelerators into a single “super cohort” this semester, while Queensland’s broader VC scene posted its best year since 2021 with $417 million invested in FY25 — a good sign for founders graduating from local uni accelerators.