Let’s hear it for Columbia’s Social Impact Ventures!
Demo Day was awesome!
Sixteen startup teams of talented students and alumni competed for the top ten spots to pitch at Columbia’s Social Venture Incubator Demo Day on Tuesday, December 7th. Round 1 and 2 judges, consisting of early stage investors, were impressed with what they saw. Thank you judges (specific acknowledgment below)!
We accomplished so much inclusively in our inaugural fall term!
In six weeks, blended venture teams of students from across Columbia University’s schools, programs, and alumni community addressed problems affecting people and the planet, conducted customer discovery to validate both the problem components and their proposed solutions, iterated MVPs, derived go to market strategies, drafted pro forma financials, determined appropriate KPIs, and pitched their ventures to early stage investors.
Our ventures span a broad range of sectors including climate impact/environmental sustainability, health and wellness, fintech, edtech, safety wearables, DEI, and construction.
About half of our teams had participated in our cross-campus startup hackathon in September, Hacking for Humanity. The for-credit Social Venture Incubator course served as follow-up programming to realize carefully researched market opportunities for which most of our founders have insight and a personal connection to the problem addressed. Hacking for Humanity and this course act as a launchpad not only to generate traction for our ventures, but also to create an inclusive ecosystem of founders, partners, and early stage investors seeking to build a community with meaningful impact on people and the planet.
Introducing our impact ventures:
Invest in Her Art. Discovery Platform & Marketplace for Women Artists – Top Ten Demo Day & Crowd Favorite
SVI Core Team: Diana Mashia, Columbia SIPA MPA 2022; Preetika Subramaniam; Columbia SPS 2022, Faiza Qureshi; University of San Diego 2022; and James Yiu, CC 2023.
Invest in Her Art is a discovery platform and marketplace for women artists created to drive social impact and improve gender equity in the art world. Women artists remain underrepresented in museums, private collections, exhibitions, auction sales and educational art curriculums throughout the world. The Invest in Her Art platform is a transaction-focused and impact-driven solution to address this multi-billion dollar lostopportunity. Our two-sided marketplace serves both artist and buyer. On the artist side, we deliver value by improving gender equity, creating high-profile B2B corporate brand partnerships, and generating sales for artists. For art buyers, we offer an efficient, on-trend experience that assists B2B customers with their CSR goals.
Opal. Safety Wearables for Women & Girls- First Place Demo Day
SVI Core Team: Jen Chiang, CBS EMBA 2023; Burcu Derkunt, CBS EMBA 2021; and Zhaoyuan Zhang, CBS EMBA 2021.
Opal is a wearables company and our mission is to make the world a safer place for women and girls. 1 in 3 women worldwide and 1 in 5 in the US have experienced physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. Collaborating with security and self-defense experts, as well as sexual violence prevention and domestic violence experts, we are building a smart ring with a hidden panic button to allow users to discreetly seek help at the push of a button to contact 911 and/or their friends and family. Safety is a basic human right and need. We deeply believe our product can save lives, and empower women and other vulnerable groups to make safer choices.
Sortile. Automating the Circular Economy for Fabrics- Second Place Demo Day & Best Tech
SVI Core Team: Constanza Gomez, CBS MBA 2022; Agustina Mir, SIPA MPA 2021; and Bhuva Subram CBS MBA 2022.
Sortile is automating the sorting of post-consumer textile waste to enable circular fashion. The recycling of textile waste is extremely difficult due to the large number of fabrics and colors. Sorting today is done manually. People inspect clothing tags in order to identify their composition. Sortile is implementing NIR Spectroscopy and Machine Learning in order to automate the sorting of post-consumer textile waste. We are currently piloting with 2 partners and are launching our 3rd pilot by the end of the week with great results. In the future, we hope to enable circular fashion and drastically divert textiles from landfills.
Joanne. Gender Pay Equity Assessment, Certification, & Sharing Platform- Third Place Demo Day
SVI Core Team: Hannah Slaughter, CBS MBA 2022; Clarke Reeves, SIPA MIA 2021; Ananya Natchukuri, Barnard 2025; and Abigail Germond, Art Institute of Chicago.
Joanne is the first compensation-sharing platform specifically for women that holds companies publically accountable for their compensation practices. By bringing together women and male allies to anonymously share their compensation data, we help women take back the power in negotiations. Through our paid B2B Equal Pay Assessment & Certification, we help companies determine if they meet Equal Pay standards and publish these results publicly. Our mission is to build trust, transparency, accuracy, confidence, communication, and community into the compensation conversation. We believe that by giving free access to data, and holding companies accountable for their DEI efforts, Joanne will help close the gender wage gap within our lifetime.
The full promising Social Venture Incubator cohort:
ALOVOS. Mental Health Platform for Women
SVI Core Team: Annabelle Jack, Barnard BA 2023; Emilia Valladares, CBS MBA 2022; and Hanna Wentz, Barnard BA 2019.
Alovos is the virtual care platform that allows Gen-Z womxn to manage their unique wellness needs. There is a mental health crisis happening in the United States and it disproportionately impacts young women. There are an estimated 20 million young women currently suffering from mental ill-health. Our mission is to transform the way these young women think about their mental wellness and access resources. We offer a personalized, cost effective way for young women to explore scientifically backed therapeutic techniques and manage their overall wellness goals.
BOON. Nutritional Guidance for the Dietary Restricted
SVI Core Team: Natnaree Bunsiraphatsorn, MD, CUMC Institute of Human Nutrition 2020; Lyssa Dimapanat, CUMC Institute of Human Nutrition 2020; and Pramothini Seklhar, SEAS 2022.
BOON is a personalized food recommendation application based on nutrient deficiencies. There is still a lack of awareness over the importance of nutrients despite its wide-ranging health consequences. In fact, 31% of the US population is at risk for micronutrient deficiency. People on restricted diets such as vegans, vegetarians and people with chronic disease are even more susceptible to not meeting the recommended intake. Current nutrition apps in the market are either focused on macronutrients like carbs, proteins and fats or supplement recommendation. BOON aims to address this problem by providing individuals a specific micronutrient panel for testing based on their information. The results are used to generate personalized, simplified, and culturally sensitive meal recommendations to enable compliance.
GEM. B2B One-Stop DEI Solution for Recruiting, Talent Retention, Compliance, and Branding - Top 3 Validation Interviews
SVI Core Team: Lulu Arias, CBS MBA 2022; Carlos Arango, CBS Global EMBA 2023; Anushka Bansal, SIPA MPA 2023; Tapobrata Behera, CU SPS 2022; Cher Li, CC 2025; and Ionna Zervaki, CC 2024.
GEM is a B2B firm that offers digital solutions to create diverse, equitable and inclusive (DEI) workplaces. GEM combines data analytics with business expertise to offer companies a one-stop DEI solution for recruiting, talent retention, compliance, and branding. Regulations, stakeholders, and society demand that companies become DEI. However, companies are struggling to enact meaningful systems. 60% of companies have DEI goals, but only 25% of minority employees believe that they benefit from them. The current solutions in the market just aren’t making the cut. GEM’s mission is to help companies level up their DEI efforts and drive positive sustainable change. Our solutions will enable companies to assess, improve, promote, and track their DEI efforts. GEM’s initial focus is startups and VCs. We will launch a pilot in Q1 2022. We are seeking partnerships with VCs to scale our business & offer experts in the field a position on our advisory board.
Generation Conscious. Democratizing Affordable Access to Plastic-Free, Low Carbon Hygiene Products- Top Ten Demo Day
SVI Core Team: Matthew Rosenbaum, CBS MBA 2022; Greg Genco, Amherst College, BA 2011; and Lily Tagiuri, CU Architecture & Urban Design 2010.
Generation Conscious is an environmental justice startup developing plastic-free refill stations that distribute toxic-free, hypoallergenic, and 100% biodegradable laundry detergent sheets and other hygiene products. Our closed-loop system allows students to enjoy affordable hygiene products that are package-free, plastic-free and therefore zero-waste, requiring 97% less water and 95% less carbon to produce and distribute compared to traditional laundry detergent. We meet the student demand for convenient, affordable sustainability by placing our refill station on a central location on campus, allowing students easy access to low-carbon, plastic free refills at a price cheaper than the leading detergent. In order to combat hygiene insecurity on campus, we ask that our partner schools cover the costs of detergent refill plans for low-income students. Generation Conscious is currently in operation at Wesleyan and Connecticut College, with contracts to launch at three other schools as well a contract for a pilot in two residential buildings in NYC.
Hubbub. Recycling Economy Coming to a University & City Hub Near You
SVI Core Team: Adekunle Balogun, SEAS 2020/ Imperial College London 2021; Carolina Perez, SEAS 2022; and Patrick Varuzza, SEAS 2020/ NYU Tandon 2022.
Hubbub is a new type of rental platform and logistics technology that lets Gen-Z and Millennial consumers access the utility they want from everyday products without the excessive expenses of actually owning and storing loads of stuff themselves. Through the use of data and machine learning we can reliably determine what our users want, when, and for how long. Our predictive algorithms allow us to strategically move micro-logistics hubs near our users based on demand. From our hubs, users can rent items ranging from dumbbells to TVs for as long as they need and have everything delivered right to their door. Our users can have the convenience of online shopping that they’re used to with the added benefits of sustainability and savings in both time and money.
MatchEd. Marketplace Supporting the K-12 EdTech Purchasing Process- Top Ten Demo Day
SVI Core Team: Rafael Canario, CBS MBA 2022 and Sharena Taylor, Dual Degree CBS MBA/Teachers College MA 2022.
MatchEd is a marketplace that supports K-12 schools in purchasing edtech solutions. K-12 procurement is currently complex and costly, with many schools purchasing solutions based on the references of other schools that don’t relate to their contexts. Also, edtechs have a hard time selling to the 130,000+ K-12 US fragmented market, frequently allocating more than 50% of their work force in sales. With $123 billion extra budget provided by the US government for schools to adapt to the new education context, this bottleneck has been undermining education outcomes. Through targeted surveys, our platform assesses the needs of a school, provides customized recommendations on which edtechs to purchase, and supports the school through the contracting process, enabling them to adopt the solutions that best fit their particular needs in an easy, low cost way.
Pelican. Gift Registry Platform Enabling Minors to Receive Gifts for Education- Top Ten Demo Day & Best Hustle
SVI Core Team: Alexandra Bono, CBS EMBA 2022; Enrique Bone, CBS MBA 2022; and William Su, CU QMSS 2022.
Pelican is a gift registry platform that enables minors to receive gifts for education. While there is $1.956B US annual spend on Gifts for minors, the current gift giving process caters toward consumer products. The ability to give a minor a meaningful education investment is filled with pain points, leaving parents with an unfulfilled preference for practical gifts, in particular early action for education savings. Pelican’s front-end gift registry platform connects seamlessly to financial products to allow loved ones to help parents with small contributions that grow over time. Our mission is to reduce the burden of the growing cost of education by enabling meaningful gifts that go directly toward education.
Sheepme. Simplifying Package Sending Logistics and Decarbonizing the Shipping Industry Among Individuals- Top Ten Demo Day, Best Pitch
SVI Core Team: Aurore Gosmant, SEAS MS 2021 and Je Seung (Jason) You, CC MS 2021, SEAS MS 2022.
Sheepme is the new secure, simple, and green shipping platform among individuals. Our mission is to simplify package-sending logistics and decarbonize the entire shipping industry among individuals. Sheepme is a C2C two-sided marketplace, which lowers the costs, carbon footprint, and delivery times of parcel sending among individuals by optimizing the empty space in travelers trunk or luggage. Today, 131bn packages are sent worldwide and an average of 12 parcels are sent per capita per year. Sheepme is unique as it leverages the strong network effects to build a community of trustworthy people. Since our launch, we have gathered 1000 followers, 350 active users on our website, and made 24 transactions. We are now looking for $30,000 funding to grow the community through marketing, receive legal advice, and develop our MVP for scaling.
Soluminos. Providing Clean Portable Energy to Mobile Food Services- Top Ten Demo Day
SVI Core Team: Cynthia Leung, SPS MS Sustainability Management 2020; Thomas Scheiter, SPS MS Sustainability Management 2021; Alex Minwook Shin, CC 2022; Jade Jiayu Qiu, Columbia GSAS MA Quantitative Methods 2022; and Joshua Herrig, SPS MS Sustainability Management 2022.
Soluminos is a social venture focused on electrifying food carts by providing battery power stations as a service. Our mission is to bring the clean energy transition to the streets around us and to leave no one behind in that journey. In New York City, 3,900 food cart vendors operate in the city, many of whom use gas generators. These generators emit 3.5 tons of CO2e per year, which is comparable to an idling car. Our customers are made up of a predominantly immigrant population, which has been hard hit by the pandemic and face rising fuel costs. For our service, we deliver, pickup, and recharge battery power stations for our customers. We already operate in San Francisco and our current beachhead market is New York City for food cart vendors. We see potential in Portland, Los Angeles, Long Beach, and other cities as food carts and trucks become more popular.
Tough Leaf. B2B Marketplace Empowering Underserved Certified Subcontractors (DWMBE's) to Grow their Businesses while Enabling Contractors to find Them- Top Ten Demo Day & Top 3 Validation Interviews
SVI Core Team: Amir Zahlan, CBS EMBA 2022; Wissam Akra, CBS EMBA 2022; Elise Smith, TC/CU MA 2022; and Mansu Kim, CC 2023.
Tough Leaf is a B2B marketplace that empowers Underserved Certified Subcontractors (DWMBE's) to grow their businesses while enabling Contractors to find and hire quality Underserved Certified Subcontractors. Federal, state, and local regulations mandate that 10-46% of public fund budgets must be allocated to Underserved Certified Subcontractors. However, of the $2.5B allocated to Underserved Certified Subcontractors in NYC, $1.3B never reached its intended audience. Our mission is to build trust and deep relationships between contractors and the Underserved Certified Subcontractor community. Our platform will enable contractors to seamlessly meet and exceed their participation goals on projects while also empowering Underserved Certified Subcontractors to advertise their capabilities and highlight referrals.
Voice. Matching Activists to Artists
SVI Core Team: Daisuke Kato, Columbia Climate School 2022; Yuki Aoki, CBS MBA 2023; and Safia Gele, CU GS Urban Studies & Planning 2022.
Voice seeks to empower people's voices for realizing social change. Voice will connect artists and activists to enable advocacy. Voice is an app that is designed to connect activists to artists with built in tools such as crowdfunding and awareness scores. We estimate from previous research and publicly available data that over 70% of activists suffer from getting support from the public or keeping sustained interest. We hope to eliminate that barrier by pairing these unique different sectors and changing what campaigns look like in the future.
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Congratulations to all of our teams participating in the Social Venture Incubator Demo Day judging rounds.
Join our ecosystem. Early stage investors and partners, please reach out to me for more information and to be placed in contact with any of our incubated ventures.
A special thanks to all the following people for their support of the Social Venture Incubator and our stellar entrepreneurs.
Our Judges:
Mike Brown, General Partner of Bowery Capital and CBS Faculty Member; Alex Dikman, Partner at JVP; Taj Ahmad Eldridge, General Partner at Include Ventures and formerly Senior Director for Investment of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (appreciated observer!); Evan Boswell Hamilton, Chief of Staff at Upfront Ventures; John Majeski, Founder and CEO of Portola Valley Partners; Vikas Raj, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Resilience VC, Advisor to Accion Venture Lab, and CBS Faculty Member; Barbara Roberts, Serial Entrepreneur, our most dedicated Expert Mentor, and Entrepreneur in Residence at Columbia Business School’s Lang Center; Danny Schultz, Managing Director of Gotham Ventures & Planet First Partners; Sandeep Tyagi, Chairman & CEO of Estee Capital and Serial Founder; David Webb, Fund Manager at Finance in Motion, Degree Candidate at Columbia’s Climate School, and Editorial Board Member of the Journal Capitalism & Society; and Julia Viner, Analyst at Closed Loop Partners.
Our Guest Speakers (Several Served as Mentors):
Manmeet Kaur, Founder & CEO of CHW Cares; Yaniv Kalish, Founder & CEO of SolarKal; Dani Pascarella, Founder & CEO of One Eleven; Mandy Price, Founder & CEO of Kanarys; and Scott Smedresman, Senior Partner at McCarter & English.
Our Expert Mentors:
Owen Davis, Partner at Contour Venture Partners; John Horcher, Educational Strategy, CME Outfitters; Stefan Lehmann-Karp, Operating Partner at Morgan Stanley’s Multicultural Innovation Lab; Linda Lipsius, Executive Director at Denver Urban Gardens; Brian McKernan, CEO Nusano, Serial Healthtech Entrepreneur; Neil Rickner, Managing Partner at Elevation Ventures; Barbara Roberts, Serial Entrepreneur and Lang Center Entrepreneur in Residence; Dylan Steeg, VP of Business Development at Aible; Amanda Steinberg, Co-Founder at HigherU and Serial Entrepreneur; Sandeep Tyagi, Chairman & CEO of Estee Capital Partners; David Wei, Corporate & Product Development Lead at SolarKal; and Sylvia Wong, Innovation Lead at UN Population Fund.
The Columbia Law School Entrepreneurship Clinic Directors & Volunteer Columbia Law Students:
Lynnise Pantin, Esquire, Entrepreneurship & Community Development Clinic Director; Tomica Saul, Esquire, Entrepreneurship & Community Development Clinic Supervising Staff Attorney; and Columbia Law Students Yi Bao, Erika Carter, Nia Imani Goodman, Ahmed Iman, Rahul Jayaprabha, Ellen Jeong, Jacob Nikituk, Andrew Savage, Ridglea Willard, and Mary Zhu.
Our course assistants:
Rebecca Manning, CBS MBA 2022; Reilly O’Hara, Program Manager for the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise; and Ife Collymore, Special Events Assistant for the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise.
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