Sonura Care won the $50,000 grand prize at Boise Entrepreneur Week’s Main Pitch Competition Finals on Oct. 1. The company also received a $1,000 Driving Health Award from Health Tech Idaho.

Co-founded by Boise native Gabby Daltoso and Sophie Ishiwari, Sonura Care makes a beanie for babies in neonatal intensive care units. The product filters out alarm noise while allowing a parent’s voice through. The grand prize includes a session at In Time Tec’s Creator Studio.

“The competition provided great exposure to investors and community members ready to help us take our next steps,” Daltoso said. She said the $50,000 prize will help bring Sonura to Saint Alphonsus NICUs, with the aim of reducing disruptive noise and connecting infants with their parents’ voices.

A newborn wearing a striped beanie in a hospital nursery
A newborn wearing a striped beanie in a hospital nursery.

Sonura Care Won the Main Pitch Competition

The Main Pitch Competition included six finalists selected from a record 43 applications. They pitched for the grand prize and three sponsored awards before judges from CCDC, Ashurst Perkins Coie, Alturas Ventures, Zions Bank, In Time Tec, Holland & Hart and Hawley Troxell.

Sonura’s award was part of a week that Boise Entrepreneur Week said awarded more than $100,000 in cash prizes to Idaho entrepreneurs. The event ran Sept. 28 through Oct. 2 at Jack’s Urban Meeting Place in downtown Boise. Winners across the week were celebrated at the Block Party and Awards Ceremony on Oct. 1.

This year’s event drew more than 1,400 attendees and reached more than 2,600 viewers through its BEW LIVE livestream. It featured more than 140 volunteer speakers across 15 topic tracks, including a new Sports Track built with Boise State University and a Youth Track for high school students.

Other Main Pitch Competition awards went to Ingles Pa Mi Gente of Boise, which won the $5,000 Scoggin Impact Award and the $5,000 Audience Choice Award, and CAMINNO of Eagle, which won the $5,000 Creating Abundance Award. The Audience Choice Award was voted on by the room for the first time this year. Its prize was funded by an auction of a diamond pendant donated by Lisa Zimowsky and Natalie Piccola of The Diamond Girls.

Across the week’s other competitions, Delo Pop of Boise won first place and $20,000 in the Trailmix Pitch Competition after a judges’ tiebreaker. DNA Innovations won first place and $5,000 in the Military Pitch Competition. In the Scrap-to-Sculpture Design Challenge, Bryannah Salgado of Capital High School won first place with “Prideful Cheetah” and a $700 prize.

Boise Entrepreneur Week’s 2026 awards bring the total it has awarded to Idaho founders since the first Boise Startup Week in 2016 to nearly $1.3 million in early-stage capital. The event is produced by Trailhead, a Boise-based nonprofit that supports Idaho entrepreneurs through programs including the Idaho Startup Lab, Boise Pitch Night, Tree City Trailblazers and Trail Guides Mentorship. The event returns in 2027.

For related reading on the broader entrepreneurship beat, see how Sensori’s founders raised nearly $1 million, Alina Morse’s work growing Zolli Candy, and Georgian College’s planned new programs.