There are two things different about the incoming batch of startups at Harvard i-lab's summer venture program: At 262 teams, it is the incubator's largest-ever cohort, and the program is fully virtual.
The 262 teams have founders from all 13 Harvard schools and represent a number of industries, including agriculture, the arts, consumer technology, e-commerce, education, enterprise software, fashion, finance, food and beverage, healthcare, media, medical devices, real estate and more.
The teams in the 2020 summer venture program will have access to a number of virtual resources including individualized guidance from i-lab staff advisors, roundtables for peer-to-peer learning, office hours and workshops with industry experts, and remote networking events.
“The last few months have taught us a lot about what it takes to nurture hundreds of startups in a virtual-only environment," said Harvard i-lab executive director Matt Segneri in a statement. "We’ve used these learnings to build a Summer Venture Program that meets students where they are and helps them move their ideas and ventures forward.”
Of the 262 participating teams, 70 teams were selected to be part of the "Build It" Summer Venture Program, designed for students at more advanced stages of building a business around their products and services. The other 192 teams are in the Start It Program, focused on helping students develop their ideas and businesses at their earliest stages.
The cohort features some incumbent startups including g.Root Biomedical Services, Limax Biosciences and Concerto Biosciences.
Here’s a look at the companies in the new cohort, with descriptions provided by Harvard
1Room delivers an individualized high school education through offline tablets in one room, with a single staff member.
Abraze Engineering creates commodity and specialty metals using a sustainable process.
acelab empowers architecture, construction, and engineering (ACE) professionals to make responsible choices through preconstruction intelligence.
Bantulingo is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that uses the latest advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to help learners read, write, and speak in major African Languages.
Beacon Biomimetics makes PhonoGrafts 3D-printed from novel biodegradable ink that can repair damaged eardrums and passively enhance sound conduction.
BeenThere provides free, instant, anonymous, text-based online 1-on-1 peer support for Chinese youth around the globe to improve mental health and prevent mental diseases.
Boston Meats is creating better texture in alternative meats through a sustainable, scalable process.
Breaktime prevents long-term chronic homelessness by launching the careers of young adults experiencing homelessness.
Button Baby enables parents to carry out high-quality interactions with their children through fun and simple activity videos.
Center for Intimacy Justice is rewriting business rules to allow advertising and entrepreneurship of women's intimate health products.
Change The Tune: The Studio is an innovative and accessible summer program model providing impactful learning opportunities for youth and educators.
Club Cana is a soccer apparel brand and club, inspired by the global heritage and style of the sport.
Concerto Biosciences builds custom microbial combinations to accomplish novel functions in agriculture and human health.
Conductscience.com is a marketplace for revenue-based tech transfer of academic inventions.
Corelant Technologies is a technology-powered real estate capital and debt advisory firm.
Dealmaker List is a networking site for commercial multifamily apartment investors.
Dia Health is developing a data-driven platform to support parents with the behavioral development of their kids, starting with picky eating.
DozeOn is an Apple Watch application that detects driver drowsiness and alerts the driver before they doze off.
DreamworldVR combats loneliness and helps develop emotional and social intelligence for isolated pediatric patients.
FIND Surgical Sciences is developing a platform technology to integrate and visualize multi-modal neuroimaging data for improving surgical outcomes.
Fractal brings the power of a workstation to any Internet-connected device.
g.Root Biomedical Services helps cancer patients find personalized targeted therapies by merging machine learning and clinical expertise.
GC Therapeutics is a synbio platform to program patient cells into any cell type 100X faster and 10X more efficiently than standard protocols for cell therapy.
GenUnity has built a civic leadership program that empowers individuals to affect real, systemic change in their local community.
GOViral finds patients and connects communities to care providers, to help eradicate hepatitis B in the Philippines.
GRYPS is an AI-powered platform that extracts and categorizes information from construction documents.
H2Ok Innovations harnesses AI and IoT to ensure sustainable access to clean water.
Helen Health is an AI-driven digital health platform that connects people with the best oncology resources in the world.
Hikma Health has developed a health data platform integrating predictive models and decision support into accessible systems for MDs and refugee patients.
HowWeLead equips and empowers women to lead education at all levels.
Human Agency builds tools to democratize social enterprise, enabling people to turn ideas or intent into action without developers.
humanID is a Single Sign-On enabling platforms to block bots and abusive users, and protect users’ data from leaks and abuse.
Immigrants Like Us is a legal aid nonprofit that prepares immigration documents for free for people who can’t afford a lawyer, using a web platform.
Immunity Health uses EHR data to recruit more patients into clinical trials with speed and precision.
International Orchestra of Refugees empowers displaced musicians to become musical ambassadors of peace, through orchestral opportunities and community.
Jova Coffee Company is building a modern cold brew maker, leveraging technology to improve brewing precision and help consumers brew better.
Koodos is the leading destination for user-curated content.
Larissa Health Tech lets patients receive their post-op instructions from a friendly animated avatar who greets them warmly in the recovery room.
Leading Lights is a virtual platform designed to facilitate a peer-to-peer community of practice for teachers in refugee contexts.
Limax Biosciences has developed a strong, stretchy, and flexible hydrogel adhesive platform, based on bio-inspired materials, to seal wounds and promote healing.
Loo Works transforms plastic waste and wood waste into sturdy construction materials to create toilet structures and digesters.
Lucidity Health is a diagnostic support tool for frontline clinicians reading medical imagery.
Meteor makes minimalist fine jewelry with impact—sustainable, ethical, circular-economy silver and gold jewels empowering women.
My Dental Key transforms dental education through video demonstrations, illustrations, and step-by-step instructions on a modern, intuitive platform.
Napkin is a statistical toolkit for machine learning engineers and data scientists to better clean, parse, and visualize data.
Nearsighted Globe has developed a high science, low cost, easy to use tool for diagnosing nearsightedness, targeting remote communities.
NeuronSpike Technologies Limited is developing brain-inspired AI processors to power autonomous technologies with energy-efficient and adaptive intelligence.
New Voters works towards 100 percent civic engagement in MA high schools and beyond through its college-high school mentorship program.
Onramp is a customer partnership platform helping B2B SaaS companies provide world-class onboarding to new customers.
Pepper Pot Tea Company empowers woman tea producers through serving consciously-sourced premium whole leaf tea, blended-to-order in small batches.
ReadToMe listens to students read books/articles aloud, coaches students, and provides data for teachers and parents.
Save Identity empowers communities through collaborative planning, financing, and construction to create resilient habitation in low income dwellings.
SECURE is developing a temperature-monitoring device for easy detection of infection.
Shamiri Institute, Inc. helps adolescents with depression and anxiety to thrive, improving mental health, grades and relationships.
Shamsina creates affordable solar technologies for all, from the energy poor to the energy conscious.
ShelfLife makes ordering from and communicating with suppliers faster and simpler—saving time while boosting margins.
Shelly Xu Design is the first fashion brand to make beautiful, accessible, 100% zero waste designs.
Sports Industry Influencers is a community building organization focused on improving diversity and inclusion in sports biz through events and developing a digital network.
Surge Employment Solutions sources, trains, and places formerly incarcerated people for highly skilled trade positions.
Tang is a mobile app that allows Filipino overseas workers to send money home and the receiver to use the same app to e-pay.
Teaching Artists International transforms musicians into global citizen artists through cultural exchanges that empower youth and support music education around the world.
Tekal brings scalable AI solutions for Covid management and infrastructure to an untapped market segment: low/mid tech cities.
The Concordium is a web-based video conferencing platform serving as an e-support network for socially isolated seniors.
The Negotiat'HER Project increases girls’ power by building their negotiation skills through in-person training and a digital learning platform.
Third Room is a platform for connecting local industry to rural STEM classes.
Troav uses gig drivers and machine learning to provide a B2B delivery service that gets users their items in 5 minutes.
Village is catalyzing women’s advancement by building community spaces anchored in daycare that centralize family and childcare.
Visionairy Health is developing an automated chest x-ray screening solution to reduce radiologists’ workload and increase their efficiency.
Wala Digital Health is a digital blood service modernizing the process of going from volunteer donors to those needing transfusions.
Waveback is making an app that allows users to meet new people and try new things by creating and viewing activity-related posts.
