As we kick off 2017 at the Harvard Innovation Labs, it’s clear that this is going to be a year of exciting changes. Chief among them is the size of our latest Venture Incubation Program (VIP) cohort.
In 2016, we received more applications than ever for the spring 2017 VIP. Hundreds of students from across all 13 Harvard schools expressed interest in exploring a vast range of ideas, from exploring how to leverage the blockchain in unique ways to using 3D imaging data to guide surgeons during complex operations. This month, we welcomed 95 new ventures to the VIP program, in addition to accepting 55 renewal teams who were part of the 2016 fall VIP cohort. We’re very much looking forward to working with these 150 ventures, by far the largest cohort we’ve had since the i-lab opened in 2011.
Everything we do at the Harvard Innovation Labs is aimed at helping students — as well as alumni, faculty, and researchers at Harvard — explore innovation and entrepreneurship at any stage of development. As more students seek our support, our team continues to operate with this mission in mind, informing the amount of programming, mentorship, and resources that we’re able to offer.
You can read about all of the teams below, aside from those that are in stealth mode. As you’ll see, the ventures represent a broad diversity of industries, with 31% focused on social impact, cultural entrepreneurship or education, 28% on consumer products or services, 23% on health and sciences, and 18% on enterprise or high tech.
Social, Cultural or Educational Entrepreneurship
- adapptED: Making learning more effective by helping students and teachers identify and overcome the specific misunderstandings they have.
- ArtUp: Will bring affordable artistic creations to everyone, unlock the potential of promising artists and be an alternative to the art mass market
- Aspyre Growth Accelerator: Develops management and system capabilities for high growth Agro-enterprises in Africa.
- Catalyst for World Water: A social enterprise that catalyzes solutions to the global water crisis by harnessing solar energy for water purification.
- Chirp: A smart baby vital monitoring system integrated in the car seat. We're using sensor technology to make journeys safer for little ones!
- CrisisData: A nonprofit that will provide data visualization software to enable nongovernmental organizations to respond to humanitarian crises.
- Datateach: We empower educators by providing a powerful data analytics tool designed to manage classrooms and pinpoint what each student needs.
- Dignify: We're creating a mobile platform for refugees to earn income by doing digital microwork on their smartphones.
- Dotacle Technologies: A cost-effective alternative to prescription glasses for patients in resource-limited settings using pinhole lenses.
- Empanist: An online platform that connects performing artists to pianists
- FieldSight: A platform for remote monitoring and supervision of humanitarian and development projects in order to improve quality and reduce risk.
- Find Your North: We are a peer-to-peer marketplace for students and young professionals to obtain quick, personalized and authentic career advice and help.
- Flare Jewelry: Is making women safer. It is smart jewelry to prevent against assault: a modern safety device. It’s always on you and immediately accessible.
- Frank (SkillRocket): A personal professional e-mentor that uses 1-minute work tips to save companies time & money ramping up new employees and managers
- GARLIC Idealab: A social media platform for communicating about creative design ideas on contemporary China.
- Girls Health Champions: Trains adolescent girls in India as peer educators in critical health topics and as leaders in their schools and communities
- GIVZ: A new global platform that facilitates two-click donations to elicit more frequent, spontaneous, and social giving activity.
- Heartstring: We are a mobile, commercial music library delivering sound for today's visual media.
- Idea Venture: A platform that guides top universities students to bring ideas to life, gathering problems identified by the public and linking them to the market.
- Khushi Baby: Wearable health records for the last mile.
- Linxx: Focuses on accelerating millennial women's personal development and professional achievement through leadership development and civic engagement.
- The Megabook Initiative: Aims to increase children's access to books and instill a love of reading in children through the distribution of eReaders.
- Methanergics: A social enterprise start-up that collects household organic waste and produces biogas and fertilizers, creating a zero waste system.
- NeighborGood: Matches chronically ill, disabled, and elderly individuals with volunteers in their neighborhood for help with home tasks and errands.
- Nex2us: Connects classrooms around the world to build empathy, interpersonal skills, and understanding across diverse communities.
- ONEE: A fashion wearable tech startup designing products that empower young women with subtle & fun ways to communicate and keep track of each other.
- Parachute Teachers: We are reimagining the substitute teacher by providing flexible, innovation, untapped talent to schools.
- Project for Better Journalism: We help teachers provide extracurricular programs in all types of schools. Right now we're focusing on delivering strong digital journalism programs.
- room2learn: Learning is changing, classrooms are not. We are a sharing platform and design consultancy that tailors school spaces to learning and teaching needs.
- Skillist: redefines the job application process for employers AND job-seekers: instead of screening resumes, we identify and verify needed skills.
- SyriaScholar: We connect Syrian university students with British and American academics to deliver live and interactive tutorials and lectures - all free of charge.
- T-var EdTech: Creates affordable assistive technologies and apps teaching literacy within a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework.
- The CodeX Program: Helping students from low-income backgrounds find success in the tech sector and secure economic mobility through summer and academic year tech programs.
- The Universal Scholarship Application: Providing an efficient, scalable application for students to win scholarships.
- Trajectory of Hope: Awakening K-12 educators bias regarding black males while shifting their mindsets, to in turn amend school discipline outcomes.
- Two Rabbits: Provides high-quality, preschool learning to children around the world, using mp3 technology, helping them to build academic & life skills.
- Whoo: A platform that provides live-streamed low-cost micro-courses and learning community to help Chinese learners know about academic disciplines.
- Words Liive: For the many youth across the country who underperform in reading and writing, we integrate song lyrics into their daily literacy curricula.
Consumer Products or Services
- 428: Groups users together to crack fun and thought-provoking questions from many topics, given to them once a day at 4:28pm.
- Actual: Creates sophisticated, custom investment plans for consumers and provides tools for investment advisers to evaluate complex financial products.
- Anchor: Provides stylishly simple men's belts. Direct-to-men, designer quality, retailer prices.
- Cambiagua: Uses solar power to deliver clean drinking water and off-grid water heating to vulnerable consumers, helping to build healthier communities.
- CozyKin: For parents seeking full-time infant and toddler childcare, CozyKin matches families to share our nannies. We provide premium and educational care.
- Dasan: A monthly tea subscription service, promoting meditation culture and delivering premium artisan teas and handcrafted teaware to its members.
- Donut: A technology based platform to encourage small donations by engaged millennials to create a habit of giving.
- Doorbell.me: A real estate services and technology startup that brings community and convenience to any apartment building.
- Dormhop: We want to revolutionize the way college students interact by leveraging the simple act of sharing one's dorm with a fellow student.
- Emberstreams: Provides online video game streaming data analytics for consumers and marketers.
- Excurvant: The first, truly social platform for travelers, explorers, and photographers all around the world.
- FastCart: Tired of wasting time waiting in line? As you shop, scan products with your mobile phone and checkout directly with the app. Save time, skip the line.
- GoDutch: Forming a "group" on GoDutch allows users to make group purchases with a temporary credit card that charges each member of the group proportionally.
- Groove: A moldable guitar pick that perfectly contours to the musician’s grip--down to the last friction ridge.
- Gusto & Gecko: A travel picture book series that broadens kids' horizons, fosters understanding of different cultures, and inspires curiosity about our world.
- Hivemind: is designing beehives for the urban population equipped with climate control and an automated honey extraction system.
- Impact Labs: Proprietary add-ons to football helmets to reduce head injuries.
- KOJA: A handmade shearling and leather coat e-commerce brand. We are designed in NY, are ethically sourced in Italy and Spain, and made in Germany.
- Limitless Laptop: Limitless is the first laptop with its processor, hard drive and memory in Cloud. It is faster than your laptop and you pay only when you use it!
- Magpie: Lets bloggers and online publishers tag products in photos, and enables consumers to purchase those products without needing to leave the page.
- Nimbly: A 3D knitting automation platform that powers the mass manufacturing of on-demand and customized products.
- Outdoor Pass: OP inspires & enables people to lead more active lives. We help members discover & do local outdoor & "out-of-doors" activities w/friends & community.
- Renw: Renw makes Saving our Planet Fun! Enjoy free and simple UX that helps you take control of your energy consumption and stay in touch with your friends.
- Rooted: Dibble aims to combat environmental degradation by introducing algae, in the form of snack foods, as a sustainable alternative to animal protein.
- Sparkle: A friend who will foster a girl's emotional connection to STEM for life boosting her confidence and imagination.
- StudyBuddy: A mobile app that helps students connect with classmates. Studying is better with a #StudyBuddy.
- SwitchIt NewCo: SwitchIt finds retail electricity customers the best deal and switches them to it, saving them the hassle and confusion of searching and switching.
- TONES: Offers women of all shades fashion and beauty products that match or are complementary to their unique complexions and body compositions.
- Vueltap: A convenient, affordable and reliable same day on demand intra-city courier and messenger service for Latin American cosmopolitan cities.
- Wallobee: Helps malls create proximity marketing tools and generate shopper data analytics to drive foot traffic and sales.
- WAYA: Our mission is to show Colombia's beautiful art to the world and to help preserve the Wayúu culture by empowering strong independent artisan women
- Zoba: Enables travelers and companies to make informed decisions about their safety in unfamiliar areas.
- Zorpads: Manufactures odor-eliminating shoe inserts using patent-pending and NASA-tested technology.
Health and Sciences
- Aeiyr: We develop simple, low-cost, wearable respiration monitoring system. While we can see many potential uses, our first target is sleep apnea screening
- Apio: Revolutionizes the way healthcare providers connect with healthcare professionals.
- Aqua Novus: We reinvent water testing so everyone can better understand the water they drink daily. The key is a cheap, portable and easy-to-use water biosensor.
- Aster: A mobile app that allows college students to receive support for mental illness from peer counselors.
- Blue Skies: Makes products to reduce asthma and death from air pollution.
- Checkmate: A glucose-monitoring app that serves as a source of extrinsic motivation to diabetics by employing gamification and social platforming.
- Day Zero Diagnostics: Combining genome sequencing & machine learning to modernize infectious disease diagnosis and treatment.
- General Biotechnologies: We identify/develop discoveries lost in tech transfer. Our lead candidate, Nivien, is a chemosensitizer to improve the treatment of Pancreatic Cancer.
- HealthWiz: Helps people get better faster. We help employers lower costs and provide employees with a one-stop-shop for their healthcare needs.
- Herald: On a mission to make health care safer by offering clinicians real-time access to clinical data exactly when and how they want it.
- Hurt Technologies: Our product, MedKit, is a comprehensive digital healthcare platform designed to revolutionize the way primary care physicians deliver patient care.
- Hypnos: Designs individually tuned sensory experiences as a hedonistic or therapeutic alternative to drug medication.
- Jane Diagnostics: We design and manufacture paper-based, low-cost, disposable molecular diagnostic platforms for rapid, point-of-care testing of infectious diseases.
- Juva Therapy: A patient-centric platform that effectively connects demand for mental health care with a fragmented supply of providers at lower cost.
- Living Biosensors: Our technology enables living cells to sense and respond to chemicals, generating novel biosensors to improve our health and the environment.
- Memora Health: We're Siri for healthcare, using artificial intelligence to deliver personalized care management information to patients at the right time, on-demand.
- Nella: Transforms urgent and chronic care delivery to underserved populations by bringing services into the home.
- PathoVax: Transforming the multi-billion HPV vaccine market with RGVax, a best-in-class candidate targeting all disease-associated HPVs.
- Phosify: A two-sided digital health discovery platform. We host non-clinical trials, powered by blockchain technologies.
- Plastyx: We are working to genetically engineer microbes to degrade plastic waste and produce valuable biomolecules.
- Pronto Health: A smart messaging tool that empowers doctors to provide better care with minimal effort.
- SiPure Membranes: A patent-pending nanoporous silicon membrane for any filtration process.
- Solchroma Technologies: Solchroma is building the world's most vivid, sunlight readable displays for large area digital signage as we envision our future in bold color.
- Synapse: Provides social support for individuals with brain injury through a national network of student-led chapters.
Enterprise or High Tech
- Aday: A digital labor optimization platform designed for employers of hourly-wage employees
- Baleen: Baleen Labs has invented a new paradigm in database security, which will alter how information is stored and shared in enterprise settings.
- bytesize: Builds Messenger bots that make great events happen.
- ClimaCell: ClimaCell's mission is to help businesses and governments take better decision by providing the most accurate weather data in the world.
- Evisort: A tool for lawyers that combines modern workflow and document management solutions with artificial-intelligence based search functions.
- FileAway: Low cost accounting service for small businesses over text messages enabled by using AI.
- Finfox: An automated cash reserve for small business. Our AI algorithms help owners of small firms set money aside for a rainy day.
- Forget-Me-Not: A mobile app trying to solve the common problem of forgetting the names of loose connections.
- H Square: Making people's lives better by revolutionizing the housing market to offer renters convenience, control, and community.
- Intelligent Associate: Rapidly accelerating contract review for law firms using artificial intelligence.
- JumpYield: We use data analytics to help websites make more money from the ads they show.
- Lidify: Github for visual communication.
- Lock.In: Changing the rental market by guaranteeing rent payments to small landlords and bearing the financial risk of missed rent.
- SmartSwipe: A universal employee verification system, that aims to replace worker IDs, badges, and more with smartphone fingerprint verification.
- uli Tech: We are revolutionizing early stage real estate development with a software that provides a bi-directional link between design and finance.
- Waypoint: Building augmented reality software for industrial applications to help businesses create a safer and more productive workplace.
- Z Imaging: An augmented reality tool to guide surgeons with 3D imaging data during complex surgeries.
