Winners & Success Stories
Finalists
Finalists
2023 Business Track
Chooz
Ashley McCray-Ford (MBA 2023)
CHOOZ is a career accelerator for women in the workplace. Through the partnership with top corporations, we are putting the power of choice back in the hands of women of color, fixing the broken rung by increasing the # of WOC managers in corporate America.
DoriVac
Kevin Emancipator (MBA 2023), Claire Zeng
DoriVac (DNA Origami Vaccine) is a biotech startup for improving cancer treatment using a novel DNA nanoparticle platform. We develop treatments that teach patients' immune systems to recognize and fight cancer.
Earthbond
Chidalu Onyenso (MBA 2023)
Earthbond is a platform that connects urban Nigerians with affordable financing for clean, reliable energy. We leverage group financing and carbon accounting to lower costs and risk in the energy transition of Nigeria's $14B fuel-based, off-grid generator market.
Fluency
Hiro Yamada (MBA 2023), Mark Yao
Fluency is an enterprise AI speaking coach for non-native English speakers.
Gigit.ai
Inez Wihardjo (MBA 2023)
Mobile first platform to crowdsource data collection and data labeling. We serve AI companies that need to collect text, video and audio samples to train their ML model and connect them to trained gig workers in developing markets.
Halo Braid
Yinka Ogunbiyi (MBA 2023)
We reduce braiding time from hours to minutes, empowering Black salon owners to double or triple their business, and addressing the 8 billion hours spent braiding hair each year.
Pathways
Vasilis Mantzios (MBA 2023), Leise Sandeman, Alex Cooper, Kritika Kharbanda
Pathway is a SaaS tool that enables companies in the building industry to quantify and reduce emissions in their value chain.
PolyoseBio
Makari Krause (MBA 2023), Amin Espah Borujeni
Polyose Bio is working to divert food waste away from landfills by upcycling it into high-value sugar polymers using a combination of insects and microbial cell factories.
2023 Social Enterprise Track
DetoXyFi
Dhananjay Goel (MPA/MBA 2023), Rishon Benjamin (MBA 2022), Rohit Karnik
Leveraging waste wood and a proprietary chemical technology process to build affordable and highly effective drinking water filters for household/individual use.
Pando
Claire Wu (MBA 2023), Andrew Setiawan
Democratizing credit for 150M underbanked Indonesians by providing alternative loans and helping them to build a credit history.
Reentry Care
Pooja Chandrashekar (MBA/MD 2024), Leah Yared (JD/MBA 2025)
A tech-enabled platform to connect returning citizens with community health services.
The MV3 Foundation
Ashley Kyalwazi (MD/MPP 2024), Leonard Nettey (MD/PhD)
Empowering Black college students pursuing careers in health sciences.