The Harvard Innovation Labs is welcoming 26 ventures into the 2022-2023 Launch Lab X GEO cohort, a global startup leadership program designed to help early-stage, Harvard alumni-led ventures grow into sustainable and disruptive businesses.
“As we kick off the fourth Launch Lab X GEO cohort, we are thrilled to welcome high-potential ventures across a variety of industries from all over the world,” said Matt Segneri, Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Executive Director of the Harvard Innovation Labs. “Over the next six months, these entrepreneurs will access a wide range of resources from the Harvard Innovation Labs. Most importantly, leaders will learn from each other’s global and diverse perspectives as they work towards building long-lasting ventures.”
The Launch Lab X GEO leadership program features:
- Founder Talks from remarkable leaders who offer candid and inspirational stories from their entrepreneurial journeys.
- Tactical Workshops on a range of topics, such as designing a product roadmap, developing a growth marketing strategy, hiring new team members, and scaling culture.
- Pitch Feedback Sessions where ventures pitch in front of a diverse group of accomplished founders and investors. Founders receive constructive feedback and advice on how to help people communicate their ventures’ potential.
- President’s Innovation Challenge, a competition designed to bring together the Harvard community to work on compelling solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. Launch Lab X GEO members will compete for a portion of $515,000 in non-dilutive funding.
“In 2020, we launched a global program and have seen our founder footprint expand from all over the world,” said Thara Pillai, Director of Alumni Programs and Engagement at the Harvard Innovation Labs. “This global expansion is helping us better understand the innovation landscape in these regions while also building a Harvard support system that will pay dividends in years to come. This year, we're excited to increase the number of Launch Lab X GEO ventures by 30% and bring together the most diverse cohort across regions and industries.”
This year’s Launch Lab X GEO ventures come from 9 countries, representing 10 Harvard schools and over 16 industries. More than 50% of ventures have a female founder. The 26 ventures selected to participate include:
- Basys.ai (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health): A B2B AI platform for cardio-metabolic health, serving providers and payors.
- Brainify.ai (Harvard Extension School): An AI/ML biomarker platform for novel treatment development targeting different types of female depression.
- Bring4you (Harvard Business School): Enabling ecommerce companies and individuals to leverage the gig economy to ship their bulky goods at low cost.
- BuiltMind (Harvard Graduate School of Design): Leveraging proprietary machine learning algorithms to dynamically price residential real estate, increasing the revenue of real estate companies.
- Chaku Foods (Harvard Business School): Using ground-breaking technology to source directly from African farmers, Chaku Foods makes snacks that are better for you and better for farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Confidently (Harvard College): Helping consumers, employees, and enterprises remove personal data from places it shouldn't be – reducing attack surface, surfacing threat intelligence, and providing peace of mind.
- Fanbants (Harvard Business School): Developing a fantasy football game for the African consumer.
- GoodFin (Harvard College and Harvard Law School): The global private banking platform for founders, investors, and professionals.
- Kern Systems (Harvard Medical School): Leveraging enzymes and cutting-edge software to store digital data in DNA at scale.
- Labhya Foundation (Harvard Graduate School of Education): Enabling state governments to create and implement Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs for vulnerable children in India, at scale.
- Mineral Forecast (Harvard Kennedy School): Designing a drill hole targeting solution that dramatically improves drilling success for mining exploration teams using the data they're already producing today.
- Moonstar.ai (Harvard Kennedy School): Building frontline employee retention and engagement via an integrated mobile app.
- PairUp (Harvard College): Accelerating employee success by matching staff with the right workplace mentors and allies, and guiding these relationships every step of the way.
- Patient First AI (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health): Creating a digital health card (just like your bank card) to address all of a patient’s healthcare needs.
- Peregrine Biosense (Harvard Graduate School of Design) : Developing the fastest diagnostics platform in the world, specializing in instantaneous infectious disease detection.
- Physis Investment (Harvard Extension School): Leveraging data, machine learning, and algorithms to help investors understand and track the impact of their investments.
- Pionear Technologies (Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences): A medical device company revolutionizing the biomaterial design of conduit-like implants for drainage and drug delivery.
- Planbase (Harvard College): Helping health providers scale their operations via AI-enabled workforce management and capacity planning tools.
- Qwally (Harvard Business School): A software platform enabling local governments to better engage with and support local entrepreneurs and small business owners.
- Rendition (Harvard Graduate School of Education): Helping software developers bring designs to life by building through an AI assistant for creating user interfaces.
- Rhymes with Reason (Harvard Graduate School of Education): An e-learning app that helps students learn important English words by showcasing their existence in widely known music lyrics.
- Soteri Skin (Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences): Making skincare and OTC products for atopic dermatitis (eczema).
- SXD (Harvard Business School): Turning fabrics, including leftover/wasted ones, into apparel products with beautiful, zero-waste designs.
- The Afrijob Network (Harvard College): Helping companies in developing markets grow by providing them with access to top local and global talent via tech-enabled recruitment services.
- Thermaband, Inc. (Harvard Law School): Creating the only smart bracelet that provides immediate preemptive hot flash relief with personalized digital insights.
- Vertum Technologies, Inc. (Harvard College): Building and designing robotic farming assistants for indoor farm environments to reduce crop loss and increase crop production efficiency.