E-Cup Launch: 2026 Winners

The E-Cup Is a Wrap. Here's Who Won.

Twenty-three years in, the E-Cup keeps delivering.

Last Friday at Irving Theater in the Code Building, five student ventures took the stage in front of a panel of judges and a packed room of founders, investors, and community members. The energy was real. The pitches were sharp. And after months of work, the full $100,000 prize pool got distributed.

This year we overhauled the competition format. The new rules put a premium on traction. Teams were evaluated on customer evidence, business model clarity, and how close they were to actually getting to market. Less points for the polished deck, more points for the founder who's been out talking to real customers and building something people want. That shift showed up in the quality of the finalists.

It showed up in the numbers too. Over 300 students participated in the Concept round last fall — one of the largest turnouts in the competition's history. From there, 50+ students pushed through the Launch track, refining their models, stress-testing their assumptions, and building toward finals day.

Here's how the prizes landed:

CAMBRIENT AI

Check out Cambrient AI here. Armaan Chakrabarti and Collin Togher (College of Arts & Sciences '25 and '26) took home the top prize of $40,000. They're building AI-powered protection against phishing attacks — a problem that costs businesses and individuals billions every year and is only getting harder to solve as attacks get more sophisticated.

DUEFLOW

Check out Dueflow here. Santiago Schmitt (College of Arts & Sciences '27) and Charlie Meyer (College of Arts & Sciences '26) earned second place and $25,000 for their work reimagining how groups and organizations handle payments. Anyone who's ever tried to collect dues or split costs across a large group knows this problem is overdue for a real fix.

GOGOOD

Check out GoGood here. Malorie Black (UVA Darden MBA '27) picked up third place and $15,000 from the judges. And then the crowd weighed in with a $10,000 Audience Choice Award on top of that. They're bringing modern technology infrastructure to charities and volunteer organizations, a sector that's been underserved by the tech industry for too long.

REPLICATION SCIENTIFIC

Check out Replication Scientific here. Alex Chen (UVA McIntire '26) took home 4th place and $5,000 for their mission to democratize access to lab equipment and custom research machines — lowering the barrier for researchers who don't have access to well-funded institutional labs.

OPERATIVE INSIGHTS

Check Out Operative Insights here. Matt Dunovant (UVA Darden MBA '27) took fifth place and also earned $5,000. They're improving surgical outcomes by automating lighting solutions in the operating theater — a deceptively simple idea with serious clinical implications.

What stood out this year wasn't just the quality of the ideas. It was the evidence. The teams that rose to the top had talked to customers, tested assumptions, and came prepared to defend their thinking. That's exactly what the new format was designed to surface.

None of this happens without the support of the broader UVA community. Thank you to the faculty, staff, and students across the School of Engineering, Darden, McIntire, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the many other schools and programs who sent their founders our way and helped make this competition what it is.

And a huge thank you to our judges. Sharon Krueger, Julie MacKinnon, and Rob Archer evaluated the finalist teams at the Tom Tom finals. Abby Fifer Mandell, Anna Fife, Will Lentz, Adam Kerpelman, Christine Mahoney, Chip Ransler, and Jim Zuffoletti gave their time during the semi-final rounds to evaluate teams and help narrow the field. Every one of them brought real expertise to the table, and their questions and feedback made every team sharper.

To every student who submitted an idea, competed in the semis, or made it to finals — thank you for taking it seriously. Twenty-three years in, that's still what makes this worth doing.

We'll be back next year. If you want to be in the room when it happens, keep an eye on what's coming out of The Foundry.

— Brian