15 Caribbean companies being considered for funding under the 2026 Caribbean STEM Startup Challenge
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The Caribbean Science Foundation (CSF) in collaboration with the Barbados Ministry of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology (MIIST) held the inaugural Caribbean SEED (STEM Engine for Economic Development) Summit from 25-27 June 2026, both virtually and in person at the Accra Beach Hotel, Rockley, Christ Church, Barbados.
The Summit served as a premier gathering event for Caribbean nationals and global collaborators who are pursuing real-world applications of STEM, financing STEM companies, and engaging in leading groundbreaking research in STEM and STEM education reform.
The Summit’s main objective is to provide a pathway and an environment for STEM talent and STEM entrepreneurs to come together with funding sources for the formation and development of new and early-stage technology companies that can competitively serve global markets.
One of the highlights of the Summit was the Caribbean STEM Startup Challenge, a friendly environment where entrepreneurs from across the Region and Diaspora pitched their business plans for the benefit of the Caribbean to a panel of judges. A total of 28 business plans were received, and of those, 15 were presented. The judges evaluated the business plans based on several key criteria, including value proposition, global competitiveness, technical and work plan feasibility, go-to-market strategy, intellectual property status, and financing strategy. The 15 business plans presented are listed in the table below in alphabetical order by company name.
Company Name | Presenters and Country | Project Title and Description |
|---|---|---|
Argentum Intelligence | Matthew Ward and Delano Waithe (Barbados) | Ēkhō – Public Sentiment Intelligence for Caribbean Governments – An AI-powered public sentiment intelligence platform built for Caribbean governments and enterprises. |
Civicore Technologies | Nysa Pierre (St. Lucia) | Cleer: Smart Enforcement for Stronger Cities – A disruptive, multi-tenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform engineered to unify and modernize traffic enforcement and parking management for Caribbean governments and police departments. |
Dantes | Gerard Beaubrun and Jean-Francois Pean (Haiti) | AI-Powered Sovereign Intelligence for Caribbean Governance and Food Security – An AI-powered decision intelligence platform that transforms fragmented government data into actionable strategies for Caribbean nations. |
Dharach Pte Lte | Matt Hamilton (Barbados) | “Yuh Gettin’ Tru” – A semantic search and data infrastructure powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) and vector databases for discovering Caribbean products across fragmented retail and social-commerce sources. |
El Sol Vida Inc. | Matthew Wilmot (SPISE* Graduate, Jamaica) and Danielle Knutson (United States) | T.R.A.C.E. Syntaxless IDE – An AI-driven Thinking and Reasoning Assisted Coding Environment platform designed to maximize the value of computer science and its concepts for the user without the user first having to learn a specific programming language. |
Festus Corporate Services Ltd. | Emilie Ramsahai (Trinidad and Tobago) | Playing with Data – A scalable EdTech platform that transforms how students learn statistics and data literacy through gamified, interactive experiences. |
Focus4ward Equity Partners | Terry Danielson (United States) | Caribbean Innovator and the Africa Innovator – An AI-powered initiative that applies proven frugal innovation methods, curated case studies, advanced AI tools, and a training model tailored to the Caribbean. |
Gotham Financial | Damarley Powell (Jamaica) | Gotham Financial – An AI-powered financial advisory and investment analysis platform purpose-built for retail investors across Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. |
Groundtruth Caribbean | Kavita Jattansingh and Carla Bridgal (Trinidad and Tobago) | Karidata Platform – A continuously updated Caribbean intelligence platform giving institutions queryable access to spatially referenced, academically validated data on social, environmental, and economic conditions. |
JalSci Enterprises Ltd – Environmentally friendly | Nigel Jalsa (Trinidad and Tobago) | Environmentally Friendly Cyclodextrin-Based Complex Applications – A project that aimed to widen the application of cyclodextrins, cyclic sugar molecules that are easily produced via enzymatic action on starch, for: (a) control of the Giant-African Snail, (b) controlled-release fertilizers, and (c) controlled-release organic pesticides. |
Karionexus Lab | Natalie Harewood (Barbados) | Karibio Studio – A project aimed at combining microbiology, bio fabrication, and circular design to transform materials such as seaweed, cassava, agricultural waste, and native microbes into high-value products. |
Medial Health Inc. | Stephen Felix and Olayinka Sarayi (St. Lucia) | Medial Health: From Paper to Intelligent Care – An AI-powered Health Information System (HIS), purpose-built for Caribbean health systems. |
NexUS | Fatima Karim (SPISE* Graduate, Guyana) | Watra Mama – A concept for a modular microbial fuel cell (MFC) system designed to simultaneously treat wastewater and generate electricity. |
Quantum Technologies Ltd. | Joshua Smith, Joel Wickham, Joshua Thompson, and Davian Phillips (Jamaica) | Quantum Technologies Ltd. – An AI purpose-built data center which provides solutions tailored to Caribbean businesses, educational institutions, and government organisations. |
Rifbid | Shergaun Roserie and Keeghan Patrick (SPISE* Graduates, St. Lucia) | Agentic Verification Infrastructure for Public Procurement Finance – An agentic AI verification system that allows lenders, factors, and financial institutions to verify critical records directly from source portals without requiring API integrations, data-sharing agreements, or technical partnerships. |
SPISE: Student Program for Innovation in Science and Engineering, the flagship STEM education programme of the Caribbean Science Foundation.
After the judges’ scores were tabulated, the five highest-scoring business plans (in alphabetical order by company name) were Dharach Pte Lte, Groundtruth Caribbean, Medial Health Inc., NexUS and Rifbid.
The Government of Barbados is exploring investment possibilities for some of the 15 companies. Other potential investors interested in connecting with any of the entrepreneurs in the above table should contact the CSF at [email protected].
Professor Cardinal Warde, the Interim Executive Director of the CSF, in his comments at the Closing Ceremony of the SEED Summit, said, “There were many good concepts presented in the business plan presentation sessions. I am optimistic that the CSF, through these summits, will achieve its objective of helping our entrepreneurs to build globally competitive technology and technology-enabled companies that will be transformative for the Region”
The Summit also featured keynote presentations, panel discussions and networking sessions on diverse topics that included: advancing a research, development and innovation roadmap, Caribbean digital sovereignty, energy and environment, agriculture and food science, robotics, Caribbean space management, fintech, biotechnology, agriculture and food science, preventive health, ageing and longevity, STEM education reform, and applications of software and AI.
The next Caribbean SEED Summit (https://caribbeanscience.org/stem-summit/) is scheduled for the third week of May 2027.
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