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WAIKAPU – Two Maui startups got the chance to pitch their ideas to Silicon Valley investors during the third annual MaiTai Maui Tech Night at Maui Tropical Plantation on Wednesday.
While neither group took home the top prize, organizers said the exposure and networking gained from the event was the true reward.
“For Maui, it’s really exciting to be able to connect folks who love Maui, who come here every year, and finally be able to plug into them being here,” said Lauren Primiano, entrepreneur-in-residence for Maui-based venture capital fund mbloom. “It’s really great to be able to bring these resources and make them more accessible for Maui County, where there’s so much activity already happening.”
More than 300 people attended this year’s event, with about 125 executives from Silicon Valley-based network group MaiTai Global traveling to the island for a four-day retreat.
The Tech Night event began in 2013 in the parking lot of mbloom headquarters, now a $20 million technology investment fund based in Kahului. Mbloom General Partner Arben Kryeziu announced Wednesday that the fund had raised $10 million from a private investor in China, bringing the fund to a total of $20 million.
“The mbloom fund was created to help build up the startup ecosystem on Maui and throughout the state. New investments like this one affirm the attraction of Hawaii’s Startup Paradise for the rest of the world and give our community the momentum to bring in even more resources and create more success stories,” Kryeziu said.
MaiTai Global founders Susi Mai and Bill Tai, avid kitesurfers, had been coming to the Valley Isle for years. Tai, who travels internationally for business, described Maui on Wednesday as “one of my favorite places for a lot of reasons.”
Two years ago, mbloom executives decided to “bring Silicon Valley to Maui” and give local startups a chance to showcase their ideas.
“The valley is coming to us, and this is our opportunity to show them what we’ve got,” Primiano said.
She added that fostering this relatively new industry in the islands would benefit the local community by creating higher-paying jobs, bringing federal dollars to the state and creating “a new type of paradise.”
“We’re trying to create a startup paradise . . . (so that) we’re not just a typical tourist paradise,” Primiano said.
Primiano said that Hawaii’s technology and startup community has been growing over the last few years, and now has four tech accelerators and other investment funds like mbloom that help startups get their businesses off the ground.
The two Maui startups that pitched ideas Wednesday were:
* Huedoku, which offers a brightly colored brain training puzzle that can be downloaded onto mobile devices. Players of the game are asked to move color tiles into a certain order. The application was created by Maui artist Gabriel Mott and app developer Dave Scruton from the Big Island.
* MorphOptic, which develops high quality, lightweight mirrors that could be integrated with solar photovoltaic to boost effectiveness and conserve rooftop space. Project manager Steve Mazur said the company adapts technology currently being used on telescopes and integrates them for uses like solar PV.
Terviva, a cohort member of Energy Excelerator on Oahu, ended up taking home the top prize of the competition, which included one month’s free workspace at the Real Office Centers Honolulu, $1,000 from Startup Capital Ventures toward travel expenses to work out of their Silicon Valley office for one week, access to Product Hunt’s community of tech founders and a kiteboard from Naish.
The California-based startup is working with Hawaii and Florida communities to develop new crops, like pongamia, that grow sustainably on underproductive agricultural land.
Judges of the pitch competition included Tai of MaiTai Global, Evan Rapoport of Google X, John Otterson of Otterson Advisory, Jean Sini of Fountain and Dan Larsen of Qualcomm.
Mayor Alan Arakawa attended the event and encouraged out-of-state entrepreneurs to consider bringing their businesses to the Valley Isle.
“We have a better brand than almost any other community in the United States,” Arakawa told attendees. “We want you to relocate here. . . . I think you’ll find the quality of life here is much, much better than almost anywhere else.”
* Eileen Chao can be reached at echao@mauinews.com.