On Thursday, April 14th, student entrepreneurs from across the GW community gathered to celebrate their achievements in the 2023 New Venture Competition. With over $163,000 in cash prizes awarded to 15 teams, this year’s competition highlighted the accomplishments of teams across various GW schools, majors, and disciplines.
This year, over 400 students submitted their ideas to the New Venture Competition, and we received participation from nine out of ten GW schools.
Meet the 2023 New Venture Competition winners:
Business Goods and Services
Ellexco: $20,000
Technologies to extract lithium from unconventional aqueous sources are needed to meet the future lithium demand. Ellexco has envisioned a novel idea to extract lithium from brines. Ellexco offers a chemical-free, electricity-driven innovative technology to directly convert geothermal brine to lithium hydroxide, which would lower environmental impacts and carbon footprint.
amplifIED: $15,000
AmplifIED is a comprehensive DEI solution platform that provides a customizable dashboard with the ability to update in real-time. AmplifIED offers data analytics to drive progress, measures success towards an inclusive workplace, and access to advisory services. This platform's differentiation is the transparency offered from HR to employees.
NFBus: $5,000
NFBus is an online marketplace through which bus companies offer their tickets as digital tokens. This allows them to retain more control, save costs, and introduce ticket reselling. Buyers can instead compare, purchase, and enforce policies through a single platform that accepts both
Consumer Goods and Services
Immorta: $17,500
Immorta is a social media platform where users can upload, store, and share multiple types of media – photos, videos, stories, recipes, and more. This platform will serve as a collective memory book, where loved ones’ legacies can be celebrated during their life and preserved beyond their death.
Seeker: $15,000
Seeker will provide guarantor services to international students renting apartments in the US, enabling them to secure housing without a US-based guarantor, in exchange for a fee, also giving landlords peace of mind.
J Street: $5,000
A coffeehouse serving locally-sourced specialty drinks, while providing relaxation, connection, and creation through art. J Street seeks to be a space for customers to rent coloring or other art supplies at their leisure, with a good cup of coffee at their side to open up their creative channels.
Healthcare and Life Sciences
CRYODough: $17,500
Cryodough is a reusable dough that is malleable even below 32ºF and delivers consistent cooling without restricting movement that can be sculpted for any area of the body. Cryodough is a household essential for first aid, especially for homemakers, to rapidly ice accidental burns without interrupting cooking and busy activities.
NFTY: $15,000
Currently, providers share medical images by burning >150 million CDs annually, a process that is expensive, unprotected, and incompatible. NFTY utilizes blockchain to streamline the sharing of medical images in a way that is secure, private, and HIPAA-compliant for private practice imaging centers and patients that require frequent imaging.
Kornerstone Health Solutions, LLC: $5,000
The present proposal integrates a nano-tech wearable mouthguard device designed as a concussion tracking device in real-time. The device synthesizes the brain-wave imaging, releasing the results to a phone and computer for clinical neurological assessment and prompt response.
Social Innovation
MiCorte: $17,500
MiCorte is a text message/WhatsApp service that will automatically check immigration court hearing information from the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) and notify immigrants in real-time about changes to hearing date/time, location, or presiding judge. MiCorte guarantees immigrants will not miss hearings and helps them avoid in absentia orders.
YIMU: $17,500
YIMU is a non-profit organization committed to support Chinese and Asian sexual minority women through producing documentary series, broadcasts and films. Our mission is to raise public awareness of the Chinese and Asian LGBTQ+ women community to eliminate stereotypes, improve mental health and trigger social change.
ADF (AgDev Fund): $5,000
AgDev Fund is a global private equity fund which provides a global investment platform in the agri-food sector. ADF will focus on food-value chain investments in East Africa, providing increased food security to the region and a diversified, high-profit investment for investors.
Explorer
GlobeER: $1,500
GlobeER is developing a technology to mitigate the concern of finding healthcare services in a foreign country for travelers who experience a health crisis. GlobeER aims to reduce the burden of healthcare emergencies by providing a worldwide database of healthcare institutions in the palm of your hands.
Liquid Handling Robot: $1,000
Liquid Handling Robot aims to revolutionize the handling of small live biological samples with their computer-controlled robot. With a focus on delicately extracting and dispensing soft cell spheroids while preserving their integrity, their functional prototype promises to be a game-changer in the field of biomedical engineering.
Circinus: $5,500
Circinus revolutionizes vacations and travel planning by leveraging AI and Machine Learning to automatically generate a dream itinerary based on your travel destination, budget, and interests. You have the power to discover your dream destination like a traveler, not just a tourist. Circinus brings relaxation back into your vacation.
We’d like to extend our congratulations to these inspiring teams, and a special thank you to our 2023 NVC judges!
To learn more about the prizes and teams, visit the New Venture Competition website.