Fresh off being named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list, Diana Virgovicova is headed to Manitoba.
The burgeoning entrepreneur has two reasons for visiting: to pitch during an annual University of Manitoba competition, which draws scholars from the likes of Yale and Harvard, and to connect with Indigenous communities.
“They’ve been, for a long time, facing huge problems,” Virgovicova said, considering Canada’s remote reserves.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Debra Jonasson-Young, I.H. Asper executive director for entrepreneurship at the Stu Clark Centre at the University of Manitoba.
She’s co-founder of Xatoms, a company using artificial intelligence and quantum chemistry to purify water. The business has several ongoing pilot projects; Virgovicova hopes to add Manitoba First Nations to the list.
First, though, she and a peer are pitching Xatoms at the Stu Clark New Venture Championships. The U of M hosts the event annually; this year’s iteration kicks off Friday.
Marketing for the three-day competition hit a new level, reaching more schools than past years. Undergraduate and graduate teams pitch their businesses and ideas to local judges; $60,000 is dispersed among winners.
Harvard and Tulane are among the schools new to attending, said Debra Jonasson-Young, I.H. Asper executive director for entrepreneurship at the University of Manitoba’s Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship.
Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University and the University of Arkansas are regulars.
This year, Jonasson-Young and fellow staff received applications from 130 teams. Thirty-two made the cut.
Xatoms, representing the University of Toronto, will showcase its work and aspirations. It uses materials called photocatalysts to make powders that can coat water filters. Virgovicova has eight patents; the photocatalysts purify water when combined with light, she said.
Xatoms has launched pilot projects in Texas, Kenya and various Canadian First Nations. It won $500,000 during a pitch competition in Montreal last year and has received funding through the 776 Fellowship, created by a Reddit co-founder, and the Compute for Climate Fellowship.
Virgovicova and her Xatoms co-founders made the 2025 Forbes 30 under 30 young entrepreneurs list for North American manufacturing and industry.
One of the company’s employees — there’s 12 staff — highlighted Manitoba First Nations needing water purification. Five communities in the province still have active long-term drinking water advisories.
“We want to establish better partnerships with them,” said Virgovicova, 23.
She’s eyeing Waywayseecappo First Nation, Tootinaowaziibeeng Treaty Reserve, Tataskweyak Cree Nation, Shamattawa First Nation and Mathias Colomb Cree Nation.
Virgovicova may visit communities after the U of M pitch competition, held at the Fort Garry Hotel. The first step is building trust, she relayed.
Often, such locales don’t have central water systems; Xatoms staff would go household to household to apply its water purification technology, Virgovicova explained.
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Diana Virgovicova and fellow Xatoms co-founders made the Forbes 30 under 30 list for North American manufacturing and industry this year. Xatoms is pitching at the Stu Clark New Venture Championships.
She envisions six-month long pilots with the option to transition to “long-term relationships.” Filter coatings must be reapplied annually, she said.
Virgovicova’s been researching for the past seven years. Around two years ago, she decided to funnel the research into a company. Finding seed funding as a young entrepreneur in Canada was difficult, Virgovicova said.
“Pitch competitions were, for us … the building block when we started fundraising,” she added. “At the same time, the mission is very important to us. We like coming to these places and raising awareness on the issue.”
Other pitches scheduled this weekend include a U of M team’s drone alternative to fireworks and a University of California, Berkeley crew’s molecular therapy designed to activate stem cell regeneration.
“We don’t want all the same type of thing,” Jonasson-Young said. “The more we’re exposed to a variety of different things, we learn and grow from that.”
Roughly 70 students will participate in this year’s competition. Many come from the United States.
“Entrepreneurship knows no boundaries,” Jonasson-Young said when asked about currently strained Canada-U.S. relations. “This is about presenting ideas, sharing ideas.”
Participants learn from each other and form friendships, she added. Many of Xatoms’ advisers have come from pitch competitions, Virgovicova noted.
Nearly 50 judges have signed on. One is Amanda Macdonald, Economic Development Winnipeg’s vice-president of business development, market intelligence and corporate services.
“Events like this energize our local startup ecosystem,” Macdonald wrote in a statement. “There’s no doubt some of (the students) will be tomorrow’s business leaders — and contributing positively to Winnipeg’s economy.”
Gabrielle Piché
Reporter
Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle.
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