Emmanuel Akindele won $20,000 for placing first in a pitch competition at DMZ's Black Innovation Summit last week.

Akindele attended the third annual summit for his app, Blue Guardian, which leverages AI to monitor mental health issues in youth.

The second-place prize winner was Edo Odozor, founder and CEO of Gia Health, which won $10,000. The company helps families manage and coordinate their in-home elder care using AI.

Jonathon Bloomfield, founder of Scooli, finished third and won $5,000. His business helps teachers automate their administrative work to save time on tasks like marking, student feedback and report cards.

"The DMZ's community is truly unmatched and has opened door after door for Blue Guardian. The Black Innovation Summit is just one of many benefits their programming offers. We have such an amazing team of talented and passionate individuals — this funding will help us grow, so we can advance our mission of making youth mental health resources available to all the world."

The DMZ, a startup incubator program at Toronto Metropolitan University, hosted the Black Innovation Summit, where $35,000 in funding was distributed to entrepreneurs.

Seven Black-founded startups pitched their companies for the chance to secure funding, a statement reads.

The pitch competition is the culmination of the DMZ's Black Innovation programming, including Black Innovation Connections, Black Innovation Program Social Impact Stream, and more.

Tech founders who enrol are eligible for the contest. They also receive support and industry connections to grow their business operations.

“Designed to honour Black excellence across Canada, the DMZ's Black Innovation Summit is an opportunity to put founders at the forefront of our efforts and spark conversations with the larger community on how we can better empower Black entrepreneurs and their ventures,” Abdullah Snobar, executive director of the DMZ and CEO of DMZ Ventures, said in a statement. “As the Black Innovation Program's marquee event, the summit perfectly encapsulates what our program offers: community, mentorship, connections to customers and partners and access to capital.”

Entrepreneur Marc Lafleur, whose story Black Dollar Magazine previously reported, was on hand at the event and discussed the need for pitch competitions for diverse founders.

“The DMZ's Black Innovation Summit is exactly the type of event that will inspire black entrepreneurs to believe that not only do we deserve a spot at the table — but because business is essentially a crash course in dealing with adversity — the table was actually built for us,” Marc Lafleur, co-founder and former CEO of truLOCAL, said in a statement.