The Unit Trust Corporation has awarded $15,000 to a local entrepreneur to support the development of his business product.
The award marked the conclusion of the UWI Connect Build and Pitch competition, sponsored by the Unit Trust Corporation and hosted by the University of the West Indies in September 2025.
The competition provided dozens of inventors and innovators with the opportunity to pitch their ideas and compete for prize funding.
The lucky entrepreneur, Kyle Gajadhar, took home the first prize and described the innovative device that earned him the win: “It’s a device you can just place at the top of your tank. You don’t have to do any drilling of the tank, you don’t have to install anything. Just simply buy it, place it on the tank, turn it on, connect to an app via your phone, set alerts that way you can see how much water that you have in your tank and you get notification for when that critical water level has reached.”
Mr. Gajadhar said his personal experiences with water shortages inspired him to create a practical solution.
“It’s a hallmark of living in the Caribbean. We’ve all experienced not having water in our taps. It is not a nice feeling. I think we have become too comfortable having pipe-borne water. Gone are the days when we would have to go by the standpipe to fill a bucket and walk back to the house. It is just like a pain that I’ve felt, and I’m sure everybody else has felt, that I am trying to remedy.”
He also indicated that his plans are to ensure that his product enters the local market.
“It helped me to realise the market potential of this product. And also to, well, the funds are nice to help me use towards research and development. Like, for instance, this little thing here – it’s a 3D printer, I designed it. It cost about $300 TT to print, so part of the funds will be going toward buying a 3D printer and filament so that I can get this maybe made at, let’s say, $10.”