The Odlum Brown Forum Pitch Finale 2025 prize recipients. Pictured left to right: Lianna Genovese, CEO, ImaginAble Solutions; Ibukun Elebute, co-founder & COO, CELLECT Laboratories; Dr. Shari van de Pol, founder & CEO, CATTLEytics. Photo credit: Jamie-Lee Fuoco.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Forum, a Canadian charity that mentors, educates, and champions women entrepreneurs, celebrates the three finalists of this year’s The Odlum Brown Forum Pitch — the country’s leading pitch program for women-founded businesses. Each finalist will receive $44,420 to accelerate their business growth and impact.
The 2025 finalists are:
- Dr. Shari van de Pol, founder & CEO, CATTLEytics, connects your dairy’s priorities, tasks, training, data, and team goals into one intelligent system—a digital twin that syncs people, processes, and performance to save farmers time, optimize profits, and keep cows happy
- Ibukun Elebute, co-founder & COO, and CT Murphy, co-founder & CEO, CELLECT Laboratories, a health tech startup developing the passive, lab-compatible collection device for cervical and gynecological screening
- Lianna Genovese, CEO, ImaginAble Solutions, a social impact company that develops assistive technology to improve the quality of life for people with hand disabilities
“The Odlum Brown Forum Pitch program is a reflection of the talent, vision, and resilience of women entrepreneurs across Canada,” says Kirsten Koppang Telford, CEO, The Forum. “At a time when supporting homegrown innovation matters more than ever, we’re proud to celebrate this year’s finalists and all participants as they tackle real-world challenges with Canadian-built solutions, driving progress and transforming industries. This program exists to ensure they don’t have to do it alone by providing as many opportunities as possible for women entrepreneurs to unlock the capital they need to thrive.”
Annual Finale Event Raises a Record $1.3 Million for Women Entrepreneurs
The Forum hosted its annual The Odlum Brown Forum Pitch Finale event on April 25, 2025, at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver to celebrate this year’s finalists and raise funds to support women entrepreneurship nationwide. This year, the 800-person event raised over $1,300,000 which will support the organization’s programming for Canadian women entrepreneurs who are ready to grow their businesses.
The three Canadian powerhouse finalists took the spotlight – and the stage, showcasing their business visions to a sold-out crowd of entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors, and The Forum community. The event also featured live audience voting and selected ImaginAble Solutions to receive an additional prize package valued at $20,000, thanks to the generosity of Wheaton Precious Metals.
What the Finalists Had to Say:
“This recognition isn’t just a milestone for our team – it fuels our vision to empower dairy farmers worldwide by building cutting edge technology that makes animal agriculture more sustainable, efficient, and profitable,” said Dr. Shari van de Pol, founder & CEO, CATTLEytics. “I’m honoured to be named among this year’s finalists and thank my program mentor, Katheleen Eva, Investor, StandUp Ventures.”
“CELLECT Laboratories is thrilled to be named a finalist in this year’s The Odlum Brown Forum Pitch Finale alongside outstanding Canadian businesses all led by women entrepreneurs who are driving innovation in their industries,” said Ibukun Elebute, co-founder & COO, CELLECT Laboratories. “The funding and support provided by this program will enable us to scale our impact as we transform reproductive health screenings for women. A big thanks to my mentor Sarah Willson for their insight and guidance.”
“The Odlum Brown Forum Pitch program has provided us with not only the strategic resources to accelerate our growth, but also a network that champions our mission to create a positive global impact for the disability community,” said Lianna Genovese, CEO, ImaginAble Solutions. “I’m also deeply thankful to Melanie Ewan, my program mentor, for their support throughout this journey.”
The Odlum Brown Forum Pitch is a national program for all women entrepreneurs, designed to help fast-track their business journeys and address the biggest barrier women entrepreneurs face — access to capital. The program offers education, 1:1 mentorship, coaching, national exposure, and access to specialized resources and networks so women entrepreneurs can secure the funding, community, and support they need for growth.
The Forum thanks long-time supporter and Title Sponsor, Odlum Brown Limited, continued Capital Sponsor, Wheaton Precious Metals, and Reception Sponsor, Fort Capital. The program is also made possible by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, and numerous talented partners, including women-owned CountDown Events.
For more information about The Forum and The Odlum Brown Forum Pitch program, visit theforum.ca and theforumpitch.ca
About The Forum
The Forum is a national, registered Canadian charity whose purpose is to deliver impactful community, education and mentorship programs that are designed to elevate self-identifying women, trans-femme and non-binary entrepreneurs in their unique journeys. As The Forum marks its 23rd year, the organization continues to see a rise in the need for programming across the country as more women turn towards building businesses. In the last year, The Forum supported over 2,000+ program participants, across 12 provinces and territories in Canada and reached 61,000+ people with education, resources and inspiration across 219 unique communities. To date, the charity has supported over 18,000 women entrepreneurs across Canada through its programs and events including The Odlum Brown Forum Pitch program, The Forum Mentor Program, The Forum E-Series program and more. Visit theforum.ca for more.
For press information or interviews contact: Monique Camenzuli, The Edit PR: [email protected] / 416.809.9918
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/13784232-2fab-4e87-98d6-41346ebdfcdd
