One of BostInno’s 23 Startups to Watch in 2023, as well as a team empowering Black college students pursuing careers in health sciences, won the top student prizes at this year’s Harvard Business School New Venture Competition.
The annual event showcased 12 student finalist teams competing for $225,000 in cash plus in-kind prizes to fund their startups. The New Venture Competition is hosted by Harvard’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise Initiative, in partnership with HBS alumni clubs and associations.
The grand prize winner in the student business track is a name BostInno readers will already know. Halo Braid, co-founded and led by Harvard student Yinka Ogunbiyi, was honored as a 2023 BostInno Startup to Watch. The New Venture Competition judges were also impressed with Halo’s handle on hardware technology and awarded the company the Dubilier $75,000 Grand Prize.
The startup is developing an automated hair braider for Black hair. Stylists start the braid, and Halo’s hardware finishes it. Ogunbiyi said that their technology reduces braiding time from hours to minutes. It not only saves time for clients, but allows salon owners to grow their business by taking on more customers.
“I’ve worn braids all my life. And during the lockdown, I tried braiding my own hair for the first time and it took me four days,” Ogunbiyi said during her pitch.
Ogunbiyi said they have filed a patent for their hair braider and built a prototype. This summer, they’re launching the hair braider at 20 salons who have signed up to be paying customers. Early next year, they plan to launch to a waitlist of over 400 stylists.
“We’re excited to bring much-needed innovation to an overlooked industry that hasn’t changed in thousands of years,” Ogunbiyi said.
This year, 318 teams entered the competition between the student business track, student social enterprise track and alumni track. The new venture pitches were vetted by more than 300 judges from fields like venture capital, private equity, law, accounting, philanthropy, impact investing and social entrepreneurship.
“Our entrepreneurs have been working diligently on their ventures for the past year or two, and the NVC is the culmination of that work,” Jodi Gernon, director of the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, said in a statement. “They have cultivated their ideas, often collaborated with classmates, and taken advantage of the many entrepreneurship resources the school has to offer. Now, with the experience of crafting, refining, and delivering a pitch, and in some cases a cash prize, they can continue their journey.”
DoriVac was the runner up in the student business track.
In the student social enterprise track, the MV3 Foundation won the Peter M. Sacerdote $75,000 Grand Prize. The MV3 Foundation empowers Black college students pursuing careers in health sciences.
“Black Americans are twice as likely to die prematurely from treatable conditions compared to other racial groups. Evidence shows that having more Black doctors could prevent tens of thousands of these deaths each year,” said Leonard Nettey, COO and research lead for the nonprofit.
Nettey said only around 5% of physicians in the U.S. identify as Black. This nonprofit aims to support the next generation of Black leaders to advance health equity through avenues like clinical practice, research and policy.
Pando was the runner up in the social enterprise track. Read more about all the student and alumni ventures in the competition.
In addition to cash prizes, sponsors donated tools and services to the emerging startups. These sponsors include law firm Foley Hoag, All Stage, AWS Activate, Case Smart Impact Capital, Harvard Innovation Labs, HBS’s Baker Library, HubSpot for Startups, MassChallenge and Wix.
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