The winners of Brock LINC’s latest Navigate Pitch Competition have demonstrated incredible creativity and entrepreneurial spirit, earning top honours and financial support for their business ventures.

Taking place Dec. 4, the competition wrapped up the latest cohort of the 11-week Navigate program. Open to Brock students and employees as well as Niagara community members, Navigate provides is designed to help entrepreneurs develop and validate their business ideas through hands-on mentorship and the opportunity to pitch ideas to a panel of judges.

MosoPlay Games, co-created by four-year GAME student Cole Bereskin and recent GAME graduate Alex Fischer (BSc ’24), took home the student award for their gaming startup. Bereskin and Fischer are developing a free-to-play game that combines aspects of popular racing and fighting genres.

Designed with accessibility in mind, this early-stage project takes inspiration from Bereskin’s experiences as a professional video game player and content creator, aiming to enhance the gaming experience for a diverse audience. He says the pair wanted to blend the gameplay experience of a fighting game with casual racing games.

“We’ve never seen a racing fighting game before and are excited to try to become the first,” he said. “We also chose our game to be free-to-play because live service games are the most similar to real sports. Similar to hockey or soccer, we want to build a community by creating an accessible game that multiple generations would love to play.”

The duo received $2,500 to help further develop their project, which they plan to expand through increased user testing and enhanced features as well as the development of art and visuals. They also plan to attend PAX East, a large gaming convention, to connect with game studios and content creators.

Also receiving an award was local entrepreneur Navun Razdan, who pitched a revolutionary virtual reality (VR) therapy service designed to treat phobias.

Using immersive VR technology, Unvrap helps users overcome their fears in a controlled, personalized environment. Razdan plans to gamify Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to address barriers — such  as fear, avoidance, perception and stress — often associated with traditional therapy methods.

Razdan received the Navigate Community Award and $2,500, which he plans to use to develop a working prototype of the therapy service.

While Razdan was apprehensive about speaking in front of audience, he says the support from the Brock LINC team helped him succeed.

“I am extremely thankful I got this platform and winning reiterated that having conviction is important and not giving up without trying,” he said. “This program has helped me break my own barriers and hopefully this will serve as an inspiration to other startup founders.”

The next Navigate cohort begins Wednesday, Jan. 15 and is open to Brock students, faculty and staff as well as Niagara community members. The deadline for Navigate applications is Thursday, Jan. 9. For more information, contact Karyn Gicante at kgicante@brocku.ca