Campus safety platform wins Kinnear New Venture Competition

Kingston, Ont. – A new venture that transforms campus safety reporting and response is the winner of this year’s Paul & Tom Kinnear New Venture Competition.

Students Siddharth Madhan and Rana Abdur Rehman, both Comm’28, successfully pitched their real-time safety platform Alerta, to a panel of alumni judges—Evan Hall, Artsci’13, GDB’15, MBA’17; Jess Peters, BCom’17;  Gurleen Dhaliwal, MBA'26; and Peter Fenwick, Sc’93—during last month’s competition hosted by Smith’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Social Impact (CEISI).

Alerta aims to close the gap between the moment an incident starts to the moment help arrives, via real-time connectivity between community members, security teams and emergency responders. When help is signalled through Alerta’s one-tap SOS or automatic detection sensors, emergency services are notified, video and voice recording is activated, and alerts are sent to those nearby in the platform’s peer network.

"Winning the Kinnear New Venture Competition is a massive milestone for us. After grinding through multiple pitch competitions, finally getting a win is incredible validation for the idea. It is a huge wave of motivation that really fuels us to keep pushing forward,” Madhan said, reflecting on the competition and its $10,000 award. “On the operational side, the funding gives us a crucial buffer to cover our initial costs, which means we can finally move ahead with hosting our pilots. We are so grateful to CEISI and the Kinnear family for backing us and giving us the resources to actually bring this venture to life."

Created in 2008 through the generosity of Smith alumni and brothers Paul, BCom’63, and Tom, BCom’66, the Kinnear New Venture Competition has helped support the entrepreneurial dreams of more than 20 Smith Commerce students.

"The competition plays a vital role in nurturing entrepreneurship at Smith by giving our undergraduate students the confidence, financial resources and support they need to launch and grow their ventures,” said JP Shearer, Associate Director of CEISI. “I am grateful to our donors, Paul and Tom Kinnear, for making opportunities like this possible. It’s inspiring to see these young innovators embrace challenges, push boundaries and create businesses that have the potential to make a real impact.”