Past winners of the MNP NextSteps Program & Pitch Competition

Michael Collins

2021 Winner: Michael Collins, Founder & CEO, Periculum

MNP and BCF Ventures had the honor of crowing Michael Collins and his financial services business, Periculum as the winner of our inaugural NextSteps Program and Pitch Competition.

Periculum harnesses machine learning and predictive analytics to close the financing gap and create more accurate and comprehensive credit profiles for historically underserved markets. Michael hopes to use the mentorship and financial support he’s unlocked through the NextSteps prize to grow Periculum into Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia — and eventually lead the company toward an initial public offering.

Read more about our 2021 winner and finalists

Learn more about Michael’s entrepreneurial journey

2021 Finalists

  • Chloe Ryan | Acrylic Robotics
  • Louis-Philippe Noël |BioTwin
  • Joshua Montgomery, Matt Dobbs, and Graeme Smecher | t.0 technology
  • Ashish Agrawal | Eon Media
  • Jason Zhao | Local Key
  • Angela Wong, Dr. Leonard Levin, Oliver Wu Martinez, and Jeremy Zwaig | Remote Optical

2021 Selection Committee

  • Matthew Gittleman, Blu Venture Investors (Virginia, USA)
  • Mano Kulasingam, Good News Ventures (Toronto, ON, Canada)
  • Marina Cortes, Hike Ventures (Toronto, ON, Canada & Tokyo, Japan)
  • Will Bricker, Hustle Fund (San Carlos, California, USA)