360VR wins a $10,000 Award in California competition

360VR Technology’s pivot from creating real estate virtual tours to virtual blueprints for first responders was a smart move. Not only does it set them apart from a growing number of virtual reality firms, it’s also getting them accolades in the startup pitch competition circuit.

Founded by University of Delaware undergrads Sury Gupta and James Massaquoi, 360VR specializes in virtual 3D models of buildings that can be accessed by firefighters and law enforcement in the event of emergencies such as fires, natural disasters, terrorism and active shooter situations. In many cases, first responders have to locate physical floor plans — or worse, guess.

The won Hen Hatch 2019 in April — and now they have another big win under their belt, this time in California just north of Silicon Valley.

“Suryansh Gupta and James Massaquoi and their startup 360VR Technologies qualified to compete in the 19th annual Big Bang! Business Competition hosted by the University of California, Davis Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” posted the UD Horn Entrepreneurship’s Vince DeFelice on LinkedIn:

“They won the $10,000 Engineering Sector Award recognizing the application of their technology and business model to solve an important social problem. They competed against 12 other semi-finalists selected from a total of 105 teams from around the world which included funded silicon valley startups and student startup teams made up of UC Davis alumni and graduate students (simply put they were two of the youngest competitors).”

The duo has been traveling quite a bit, per DeFelice: They also competed at Austin’s South by Southwest in the Student Startup of the Year competition; at Fort Worth’s Texas Christian University in the Values and Ventures Competition; and at Boston’s Startup World Cup, all this past March — and “in each case amplifying UD’s national footprint.”