2018 Startup Challenge Semifinalists

Competing Team: Rooshy Roy, WG’19
Justin Silver, WG’19

For women in the U.S. who want a better skincare routine, aavrani is a luxury skincare company inspired by India’s ancient beauty rituals.

Learn more about aavrani

Competing Team: Colin Robinson, WG’18
Anvith Ekkati, GEN’18
Peter Zhu, WG’18

Acention is a free-to-play mobile gaming platform where users make money by beating other users in multiplayer games.

Learn more about Acention

Competing Team: Aminata Sy, LPS’19
Abdoul Wane
Hazim Hardeman

African Community Learning Program educates, connects, empowers, and supports people of African background in West Philadelphia.

Learn more about the African Community Learning Program

Competing Team: Rui Jing Jiang, W’18
Adarsh Battu, W’18
Brandon Kao, ENG’18

Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world and leads to vision loss that cannot be cured or reversed. By 2020, glaucoma will affect 3.4 million people in the U.S. and 80 million people globally. In open-angle glaucoma patients, excess fluid builds up inside the eye, putting pressure on and permanently damaging the optic nerve — leading to blindness. VisiPlate is a nanoscale drainage implant operating in areas of the eye that competitors cannot enter due to their size. 10,000x thinner than competitors, VisiPlate mitigates risk of post-operative double vision, excessive scar tissue, patient discomfort, tissue erosion, and bleb failure. VisiPlate is a nanoscale defense against blindness from glaucoma.

Learn more about Avisi Technologies

Competing Team: Haley Russell, WG’18
Laura Colagrande, GAR’18
Amanda Robison, WG’18

Chipper Pet Food offers a sustainable and nutritious alternative to traditional pet foods. Our products are made from edible insects. In addition to creating an eco-conscious product, we offer pet owners an option that allows them to introduce diversity into their pets’ diets. You don’t eat the same food every day, and your pet shouldn’t either!

Learn more about Chipper Pet Food

Competing Team: Federika Longinotti-Buitoni, WG’18

Collecto is an online luxury retailer that offers an unparalleled gifting experience through distinctive product curation, exceptional gift presentation and bespoke customer service.

Learn more about Collecto

Competing Team: Michal Benedykcinski, G’19, WG’19
HQ Han, WG’19
Timothy Clancy, ENG’18, GEN’18

Dexio leverages blockchain and 3D scanning technology to promote transparency and create new forms of financing in the diamond industry’s midstream.

Learn more about Dexio

Competing Team: Vinayak Kumar, C’13, G’13, M’18, WG’18
Ram Prasad Modalavalasa
Kelly Xu, WG’17

E-Health Now is a digital platform connecting cancer patients in China with leading US oncologists via virtual joint consultation at reduced cost and processing time as existing providers, with the ultimate goal of reducing global health care access issues in high-quality cancer care.

Learn more about E-Health Now

Competing Team: Michael Wong, W’19
Dayo Adewole, ENG’15, GEN’15, GR’21
Matthew Hanna, ENG’18

InstaHub simplifies automation through smart “snap-on” solutions. We have developed a battery-powered device with occupancy sensing capabilities that attaches over existing toggle light switches for instant light automation.

Learn more about InstaHub

Competing Team: Nikil Ragav, ENG’20, W’20
Amit Gupta, ENG’20, W’20
Yan Li, ENG’21, W’21
Liana Patel, ENG’21, W’21

inventorspaceXYZ: We create an ecosystem for hands-on, high-tech STEAM and Entrepreneurship learning in high schools and middle schools across America. We do this by designing and installing inventorspaces at schools with 3D printers, laser cutters, soldering stations, VR rigs, 4K cameras, etc and by providing a curriculum to teach students how to use the equipment, code, and build their own ideas.

Learn more about inventorspaceXYZ

Competing Team: Shanel Fields, WG’19
Randy Findley

MD Ally is an emergency telehealth company that allows 911 dispatchers to enable instant access to an ER physician for non-emergency 911 callers. Our team of physicians effectively advises the patient on the most appropriate site of care via an instantaneous telemedicine visit; reducing overutilization of the ER and driving savings for patients, payers, and municipalities.

Learn more about MD Ally

Competing Team: Arhama Rushdi, L’18
Dr. Saad Rushdi

Mediscore is a tech enabled healthcare service that helps Medicare Advantage Plans and ACOs manage their chronic care patients while accurately risk adjusting for their patient population.

Learn more about Mediscore

Competing Team: Thomas W. Samph, GED’18

MyNet is a B2B SaaS company in the higher education space. Our content and software helps college students create personal support networks of mentors and advisors so that they persist in college.

Learn more about MyNet

Competing Team: Smita Mukherjee, GR’09, WG’18
Carlos Couce C’18
Laura Gao W’18
Rohini Gooptu C’20
Jennifer Mao Jones L’18, WG’18
Sachi Sobti, WG’18

Currently in USA more than 16.1 million family members provided 18.2 billion hours of unpaid care to people with Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias (ADRD), at an economic value of over $232 billion. Nearly 60 percent of those caregivers rate their emotional stress of caregiving as high and report symptoms of depression. To reduce caregiver burden, Nimbus Care Hub provides accessible, affordable and holistic services to caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD).

Competing Team: Matt Kim, C’20
Vahid Fazel-Rezai
Victor Hunt
Yusuf Olokoba
Aaron Resnick
Ethan Resnick

Buildings always need repairs. Paragon is an online marketplace that makes it faster and cheaper to find contractors, compare bids, and manage work through completion.

Learn more about Paragon

Competing Team: Sravya Alla, W’21
Julie Chen, ENG’21, W’21

Peerlift is the first student-led opportunities platform and 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization ever created, reducing the search for high school opportunities from hours to minutes. We profile a proven group of scholarships, summer programs, awards, study abroad programs, college fly-ins, and internships, ensuring they meet our standards and offer financial aid.

Learn more about Peerlift

Competing Team: Mike Zeidlhack, WG’19
Naveen Muthu
Justin Pagano
Marc Tobias

PHRASE Health democratizes access to clinical decision support analytics making insight available to everyone from healthcare systems to the payers and providers that support them.

Learn more about PHRASE Health

Competing Team: Thomas Cavett, G’18, WG’18
Frank Miller

POWTI Innovations makes the world’s first fully automated, standalone traumatic injury detection system that activates when you have sustained a traumatic injury and instantly sends your geolocation to rescue personnel. We are a veteran owned and operated company with a passion for saving lives.

Learn more about POWTI Innovations

Competing Team: Daniel Zhang, GR’23, M’23
Prateek Agarwal, M’20
Divyansh Agarwal, GR’23, M’23

Sanguis is developing a cost-effective at-home blood cell counting device for patients to monitor their health during chemotherapy treatment.

Learn more about Sanguis

Competing Team: David Ongchoco, C’18
Kevin Ho, ENG’18

SkillStackers helps local businesses automate their social media marketing using a combination of our technology platform, analytics tools and a vetted remote workforce. Our solution is a better and cheaper alternative for local businesses who currently either have to do it themselves, hire a full time marketing manager or outsource to an agency.

Learn more about Skillstackers

Competing Team: Philip Williams, C’15, M’20
Naveen Jain, GR’24, M’24
Jun Jeon, M’20
Hong Jeon

Despite improvements in many areas, LGBTQ+ people continue to face significant healthcare disparities in terms of access and outcomes that are exacerbated by an inability to identify LGBTQ+-competent providers. SpectrumScores empowers LGBTQ+ people to take back control of their health by offering an intuitive ranking and review system for healthcare providers based on their LGBTQ+ competence and friendliness, enabling patients to connect with the healthcare providers best suited to meet their unique needs.

Learn more about SpectrumScores

Competing Team: Katherine Sizov, C’19
Reginald Lamaute, C’20
Prima Pisuttisarun, GEN’18
Gauri Srivastava, GEN’19
Sanjula Weerawardhena, W’18

Strella Biotechnology is developing a biosensing platform that predicts fruit ripeness, thus reducing food spoilage and waste in the supply chain. Packers and distributors will be able monitor produce as it ripens in storage, and always locate the readiest produce for their customers.

Learn more about Strella Biotechnology

Competing Team: Bianca Gonzalez, NU’08, WG’19
Janak Agarwal, WG’19
Mythri Papolu

TaskUnite is a real-time task tracking and data analytics application suite for clinical teams.

Learn more about TaskUnite

Competing Team: Shai Kivity WG’19
Eilon Shalev
Jaime Gonzalez Fernandez
Eitan Smith
Frankie Xu
Carly Lugus

UniCoin is a B2B FinTech company that digitalizes the entire loan cycle from originating to trading, allowing banks to trade any kind of loans in a digital manner, thereby reducing costs and increasing revenue thanks to an 85% shorter liquidation cycle, generating billions of dollars to our clients.

Learn more about UniCoin

Competing Team: Seth Neel, GRW’20
Ross Lubetkin, WG’17
Akash Sadashivapeth, GEN’18
Ivan Cima
Pablo Medina

Welligence Energy uses proprietary machine learning algorithms to forecast production and future value in international oil and gas assets. Founded at Penn, we have offices in Houston, Texas and NYC.

Learn more about Welligence

Competing Team: Dhruv Vasishtha, WG’18
Andrew Bright, C’18, W’18

Yeva is a care-giving enablement technology platform that leverages the collective knowledge of caregivers–anyone who supports a patient aging, disabled, or with a chronic condition–to extract patterns from their shared experiences, and arm future caregivers with knowledge and preparation for what’s ahead. A community of caregivers are providing and consuming specific, targeted solutions on the challenges that come up while mentally supporting each other.

Competing Team:  Gabriel Elsner, WG’18
Eddie Kong, GEN’18

ZEV helps automotive dealerships sell more electric vehicles (EV) by providing resources and education for consumers on new EV technology. Our software-as-a-service platform provides tools and advice to help customers understand EV range, charging, cost of ownership, and tax breaks. We help dealerships provide world-class customer service and increase electric vehicle sales.

Learn more about ZEV

Questions? Email Startup Showcase organizer Jill Anick.