A Northern Ireland company which has developed a more effective and user-friendly type of bullet-proof body armour has scooped the top prize in one of the most coveted startup competitions.
Vikela Armour beat off competition from nine other finalists to be named the winner of the INVENT 2022 awards and took home a prize package worth £26,000. The 10 finalists had to give a live one-minute elevator pitch to win £1,000, with the audience on the night also voting Vikela Armour as the winner of best pitch.
The company was founded by Belfast engineering graduate Peter Gilleece in an effort to develop a new type of body armour which privides better protention and comfort than conventional flack jackets.
He welcomed the awarded which, he said, recognised the potential of the product.
“Existing body armour leaves the head, arms and legs completely exposed and is built on an outdated concept. It is also too heavy, reducing the flexibility of movement and causes the wearer to become exhausted,” he said. “I wanted to address these issues, leading to the creation of Vikela Armour. Paramedics, motorcyclists, mine clearance charities, the military and many more industries can benefit from our lightweight, full coverage products.”
Mr Gilleece said the INVENT funding will help the business expand into other industries, such as aerospace and automotive.
“We hope that in five years from now we will be growing our manufacturing base further within Northern Ireland and will be starting to design the next evolution of armour,” he said.
The category winners on the night were:
Greentech – Phasora Ltd
Health and Wellbeing – Pulse AI
Business Software – Thunder
Consumer Software – Linc
Product – Vikela Armour
A newly-introduced Inclusive Innovation Award was presented to Field of Vision, who provide live sport for visually impaired fans, delivered through haptics and AI. The winner of the Student INVENT competition was Atlas Smart Technologies Ltd, which has designed and developed an adjustable dumbbell that uses a patent-eligible mechanism to allow users to change its weight from 4kg up to 30kg.
“We’d like to congratulate all of the start-ups and entrepreneurs who made it to the INVENT 2022 Final,” Meg Magill, INVENT Programme Manager, said. “These companies are an inspiration to us all as they strive to find innovative solutions to real world problems.
“Catalyst is focused on fostering inclusive innovation and developing entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland and the calibre of entries we received this year has once again highlighted the quality of talent and potential for innovation that exists here. I have no doubt that this year’s finalists will go on to do amazing things.”
