The first ever Caribbean SEED (STEM Engine for Economic Development) Summit, held in Barbados from June 25 to 27, has crowned five standout business plans from across the region — and two of those top spots belong to emerging startups from Saint Lucia.
Organized by the Caribbean Science Foundation in partnership with Barbados’ Ministry of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology, the three-day event gathered regional STEM innovators, global industry partners, investors and policymakers to advance STEM application, research, financing and education reform across the Caribbean. The centerpiece of the summit was the Caribbean STEM Startup Challenge, which drew 28 submitted business plans from innovators across the region, with a shortlist of 15 ventures selected to pitch their concepts to a panel of expert judges. Plans were evaluated across six core metrics: value proposition, global market competitiveness, technical and operational feasibility, go-to-market strategy, intellectual property standing, and long-term financing planning.
Leading the cohort of Saint Lucian successes is Medial Health Inc., represented by founders Stephen Felix and Olayinka Sarayi. The startup’s flagship project, “From Paper to Intelligent Care,” introduces an artificial intelligence-powered health information system built specifically to address gaps in Caribbean public and private health systems. The platform is designed to modernize outdated paper-based record-keeping and streamline care delivery for patients and providers across the region.
The second top-scoring Saint Lucian venture, Rifbid, is led by Shergaun Roserie and Keeghan Patrick, two Saint Lucian graduates of the Student Programme for Innovation in Science and Engineering (SPISE). Rifbid’s AI-powered solution focuses on building agentic verification infrastructure for public procurement finance. The tool enables lenders, commercial factors and other financial institutions to directly access and verify critical procurement records from official government source portals, cutting down on administrative friction and reducing fraud risk for public sector finance projects.
Joining the two Saint Lucian startups in the top five are Barbados-based Dharach Pte Ltd, Trinidad and Tobago’s Groundtruth Caribbean, and NexUS from Guyana.
In the wake of the challenge, the Government of Barbados has announced it is actively exploring potential investment opportunities for several of the 15 pitching ventures. The Caribbean Science Foundation has also opened a channel for other interested private investors to connect with participating entrepreneurs.
Cardinal Warde, Interim Executive Director of the Caribbean Science Foundation, shared that he holds strong optimism for the long-term impact of the summit series. He noted that recurring gatherings like this will empower regional entrepreneurs to build technology-driven companies that can compete on the global stage, ultimately driving transformative economic and social change across the Caribbean.
Marking the first edition of what will be an ongoing event, the inaugural 2025 summit has set the stage for the next gathering, which is scheduled to take place in the third week of May 2027.