DAVIS, Calif. – Judges of a recent business plan competition were so impressed with two budding entrepreneurs, they awarded them each $10,000 to help get their businesses off the ground. Two start-up companies-one that helps busy families prepare home-cooked meals and a biomedical venture that is developing a handheld diagnostic tool for health care professionals-each have won the monetary prizes at a competition at the University of California, Davis. The $167 million First US Community Credit Union, along with more than a dozen companies, helped sponsor the contest. A panel of eight venture capitalists and entrepreneurs from the Sacramento region and the Bay Area served as judges and selected the two winners to share the total prize money. Ensembles, LLC creates up to 14 ready-to-cook meals that are personalized to their family's tastes, the owners said. The start-up company will open its first store May 31. The other winning company, Mesolytics, hopes to give health care professionals a portable tool to quickly diagnose medical ailments using a swab of patients' saliva or drop of blood. First US Community CU has an extensive business services and loan department and is a Small Business Administration lender.

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