Social Innovation
Meet the teams headed to the Red Bull Basement Canada National Finals
The innovation and entrepreneur competition will see three participants compete in Toronto at the National Finals for their shot at the World Final in San Francisco
Red Bull Basement is a global event that empowers young entrepreneurs to develop and launch their ideas with the help of AI technology, and after reviewing thousands of applications from coast to coast, the top ideas have been selected to be showcased in the Red Bull Basement Canada National Final.
The National Final will take place in Toronto between May 14-15 at the Red Bull Canada HQ. Next-generation innovators will present ideas spanning health, sustainability, and everyday problem-solving to a panel of expert judges.
The team with the top idea will go on to represent the Canada among national winners from 40 countries at the World Final in San Francisco.
Below is a list of the Red Bull Basement Canada National Finalist participants and their ideas.
01
Groundwork
Taha Rizvi - Groundwork
© Taha Rizvi
What is Groundwork?
Students are more vulnerable than ever when it comes to spending. Our devices and environment have made it increasingly easy to simply tap or autofill your card details to make purchases. As a result of this, when students are left to manage their own finances, bad habits lock in fast.
Groundwork was created by Taha Rizvi and was born to build the foundation for long-term financial success before those bad habits even get the chance to form. The second a deposit lands, Groundwork automatically structures it into spending, savings, tax, and investment buckets, and will have an AI-integrated chatbot to help create a working structure and answer any questions.
Tagline: Financial structure from day one.
02
TruthShield
Joi Lam Chow - TruthShield
© Joi Lam Chow
What is TruthShield?
In 2024, the world lost over $1 trillion to scams. The same AI powering breakthroughs is being weaponized to clone voices, fabricate videos, and destroy lives in seconds. Joi Lam Chow has seen this happen firsthand, and that is why they built TruthShield. TruthShield is the world's first all-in-one Agentic AI protection platform. Multiple shield modules run silently on your devices, detecting and stopping fraud, deepfakes, and misinformation across voice, messages, links, videos, social media, and more.
TruthShield protects everyone, on every device, against every threat. What makes TruthShield viable is how it is powered. Rather than spending trillions on AI infrastructure like Hyperscalers, TruthShield collaborates with individual computing power worldwide, leveraging the idle GPUs already distributed in our society. This creates a self-reinforcing network where more users mean lower costs, stronger protection, and a significantly smaller environmental footprint. The internet has never had an immune system. Until now.
Tagline: The internet’s immune system.
03
Chantry
Harry Callaghan - Chantry
© Harry Callaghan
What is Chantry?
Chantry is an AI visibility platform for tradespeople: plumbers, roofers, electricians, window cleaners, and more. Created by Harry Callaghan, Chantry audits their online presence and fixes the signals that determine whether they show up on Google and, more importantly, how they get recommended by AI tools like ChatGPT, all without the price tag of a traditional agency. Search behaviour is shifting fast, and the numbers back it up.
People who find a business through AI convert at 14.2%, compared to just 2.8% on Google. That's 5x more valuable. Most tradespeople have no idea this channel exists, and their websites are completely invisible to it. I ran my own trades business before. I know these guys are great at their job, but they have no time for marketing. Chantry runs in the background and does it for them.
Idea tagline: While you're on the job, Chantry is helping get you the next one
Road to the World Final
The winner of the Red Bull Basement Canada National Final will earn their spot at the World Final, taking place in the US for the first time ever on June 3. After previous editions in Istanbul and Tokyo, in 2026 first-time founders from over 40 countries will pitch their inspiring ideas on a global stage in San Francisco, the heart of tech and innovation.
Hosted at Pier 48, the World Final brings together emerging innovators, industry leaders and cutting‑edge technology. After an immersive pre‑selection showcase, the Top 10 teams take the stage to pitch in front of high‑profile judges, investors, Red Bull athletes and a live audience, competing for the title of Red Bull Basement World Final Winner and USD 100,000 in equity‑free funding.
It takes one idea to make an impact.