Harvard Innovation Labs is bringing 352 new student teams into the fold for its fall venture program, adding more potential future companies to the illustrious incubator as it approaches 10 years in operation.
Among this fall’s participants are teams developing an online dental education platform for kids, an anti-wrinkle and anti-acne pillow, a low-cost edible gel to fight malnutrition, and a crowdsourced art exhibit and research study collecting letters on loneliness.
Of the new teams, 117 groups are part of the i-lab’s Build It track for students at more advanced stages of building a business, and 235 are in the Start It track for students trying to develop their ideas and find customers.
“Later this fall will mark 10 years since the Harvard Innovation Labs opened its doors, and we are thrilled to celebrate this milestone with the largest group of innovators and entrepreneurs who have ever participated in our fall venture programming,” said Matt Segneri, executive director of the i-lab, in a statement.
The lab is back to a mix of in-person and virtual programming after moving all online for the pandemic in 2020. This fall’s program will include one-on-one meetings with Harvard Innovation Labs advisors and industry experts from around the world, workshops and panels, and events like mixers and “pitch swaps.”
These are the 117 Build It projects here, with descriptions provided by the i-lab.
B2B/Enterprise or High Tech
Candelytics: A 3D data analytics and data management startup.
Cardinal LCA: A digital tool for architects that analyzes the environmental impacts of design decisions in the early stages of a project.
Clade Network: Creating a campus marketplace for favors and local forums.
dData: Predicting real-time macro indicators for policy makers and financial data analysts so that they can make better decisions, faster.
ENABL: Using mentorship and data insights to spread knowledge, increase access to opportunities and assess how well organizations help their members.
First90: A platform to build experiential training for new employees.
Fork Careers: Helping individuals secure higher wages and more fulfilling careers.
Helthy: Providing real-time recommendations for people with diabetes as they shop for groceries online.
Hue Beauty: A beauty tech platform that helps shoppers find makeup shades that match their skin tone.
KRADLE Structural Lifting Systems: Developing and manufacturing patented technologies to bolster homes and commercial structures against weather emergencies caused by climate change.
Larsen: Facilitating feedback among team members to help teams perform better.
Lit Learning: A digital language learning tool for teachers and students.
Lovage Labs: Building conversational AI models that automate business operations for companies.
Mineral Forecast: Supporting mining exploration teams that are struggling with their data to decide where to put their next drillhole and discover what is underneath.
My Dental Key: An online dental education platform for dentistry students.
MyCode: A coding academy for children as young as 5 years old.
Pathlight: Building a hiring platform where engineers build their careers in public.
Rimble: A machine learning company that creates and sells real-time predictions for eSports matches to betting companies.
Soft Builder: Providing a no-code application platform to deliver custom solutions for the manufacturing industry in Latin America.
Stochastic: Building AI for making deep learning models smaller, faster and cheaper.
Stria Labs: Creating a technological ecosystem for blind individuals.
Synses Designs: Providing synthesized 3D printed models perceptible by the sense of touch to improve access to STEM education for students with disabilities.
syrup.tech: Supporting better decision-making for apparel and fashion brands in their inventory decisions using AI/ML wrapped in beautiful software.
Ving.AI: An AI-powered peer-to-peer currency exchange solving the problem of high remittance fees experienced by African migrants.
Consumer Products and Services
Anise Health, Inc.: A culturally-informed digital mental health platform for ethnic minorities, starting with the Asian American population.
Ariya Labs: Placing instructional content in the physical world with augmented reality.
Ascend Foods Inc. (Keto Kind): Making science-backed products to support metabolic health in patients.
Chord: Making online communities more real, impactful and valuable to their members while saving community leaders hours of work per week.
ChrysCard: A smart wallet that routes all your transactions to the right payment method.
ezVenture Technologies Ltd: A web app for startup founders to build interactive, shareable pitch deck pages.
Fan.Zone: An online platform allowing an unlimited number of esports fans to meet and evolve in a 3D HD environment with video presence.
Flow: The future of coffee, cold brew optimized to help people think better, offering no jitters and benefits that last twice as long to promote neurogenesis.
Hibiscus Monkey: A director-to-consumer venture on a mission to become India's first body specialist brand powered by plants and ancient wellness rituals.
HiHome: The first instant home matching platform, improving search by providing comprehensive criteria and capturing its relative importance.
Jasper Cocktails: Making sophisticated non-alcoholic beverages for the non-drinker and "flexi-drinker."
Lasso: A mobile app for users to plan and coordinate social events with their friends.
MATINET: An online entertainment platform for high performing arts, especially professional dance. Users edit long-form content into mini-movies and share with friends.
MemeBoard: A mobile app that allows users to search and make memes directly from the keyboard without leaving their chat application.
Mi Lado Místico: An e-commerce store that sells anything that can help you connect with your inner self and “mystic side,” from crystals to books and tarot decks.
MoonPillow: An anti-wrinkle and anti-acne pillow designed to free your face from pressure during use and packaged with premium pillowcases.
Music Inc.: Collecting music publishing royalties for songwriters and copyright owners, making it easier for music creators to collect all the money they're owed.
PredictionStrike, Inc.: A sports stock exchange.
ProDream Education: Improving access to higher education for community college students.
Render: An app for gamers to upload and store saved screen captures, connect with the community, and combine their gaming profiles in one place.
Schmid Wines: Producing and marketing high quality and climate positive wine.
Slated Events: Sending calendar invites over text to make planning easy. Friends can add events to personal calendars without needing an app or visiting a site.
Stealth Health Tech Company: Helping people find health coaches that meet their needs and accept their insurance.
The Cyclist House: Purchasing premium pre-owned bicycles, inspecting and certifying them, and putting them up for sale for reasonable prices.
The Goods: Waking up the sleepy canned goods aisle with a collection of modern pantry essentials.
The NRI Nation: A news network catering to the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) population worldwide, covering the local and international NRI community.
To Go Kitchens: Disruptive kitchens operating 15+ delivery brands, set in four different locations in Panama City, Panama.
Trove Finance: Providing infrastructure (APIs and Tools) for African Financial Institutions (banks and asset managers) and individuals to invest in global stock markets.
yas: A language learning app that uses AI to create brain-friendly and adaptive learning experiences.
Health and Sciences
Arda: Providing a delivery service for critical medical supplies, using drone fleets which operate within existing healthcare supply chains.
Blue Ocean Therapeutics: Developing personalized neoantigen-targeted diagnostics and cell therapies for Focal Cortical Dysplasia Type II.
Darby: Connecting remote clinicians with at-home diagnostic vendors (e.g., mobile x-rays) so that doctors can place at-home test orders.
FIXUS: A system that detects bone fractures and joint instabilities automatically using X-ray and CT scan images.
HealthDeck: A mobile-first platform that makes capturing, understanding and sharing one’s complete medical history as simple as using Instagram.
Hive Health: Digital health insurance for small and mid-size businesses in the Philippines.
Kiikter: Creating a low-cost edible gel fortified with key micronutrients to reduce malnutrition-related anemia.
Kinnos: Highlight technology enhances pathogen decontamination by colorizing disinfectants blue for visibility and fading to show full decontamination.
Kleincise: Introducing automated and on-beat robotic solutions in interventional cardiology.
Limax Biosciences: Recreating nature’s toughest glue to transform treatments for injuries inside and outside the body.
Lime Therapeutics: Eliminating cancer and other diseases by finding novel ways to target lipid metabolism.
MyoExo: Developing a soft wearable system to monitor rigidity caused by Parkinson’s disease, without a clinician, from the comfort of a person’s home.
PACare: Utilizing an app to increase patient adherence and education, reducing readmissions and post-operative complications rate.
Shiny: The AI personal assistant for dentists.
Sylphi: A social network created for Gen Z and Millennials to share, discover and discuss health and wellness.
TerraFlow: Mapping the immune system and showing scientists which levers to pull in order to re-engage the immune system in fighting cancer.
Vitally Health: Using several layers of clinical and molecular data to map early diagnosis and digital therapies.
ZircoPlant: Developing innovative technologies enabling clinicians to predictably perform autogenous therapies for dental tissue regeneration.
Social Impact
Afya Pamoja: An SMS patient feedback service to provide performance management data for public health care managers in Tanzania to improve service quality.
Ai Am Me: Interactive programs designed to help Asian American youth build the awareness, confidence and soft skills to break the bamboo ceiling.
Almond Finance: Achieving borderless financial inclusion and extending economic opportunity by making interoperability across financial service providers possible.
Belay Securities: Using capital markets to provide rideshare drivers the income security of full-time employment while maintaining the flexibility of gig work.
BUILD NIGERIA INC.: Creating a pathway for low-income and first-generation Nigerian students to study at world-class colleges through our cohort college access program.
Canopy Innovations, Inc.: Eliminating the language barrier in healthcare and improving outcomes for 26 million limited-English-proficient individuals, using solutions beyond interpreters.
Dear Loneliness: A crowdsourced art exhibit, research study and COVID-19 archival effort, collecting thousands of letters on loneliness from around the world.
Dear Mémé: A personalized activity subscription service that assists people with dementia and their caregivers through science-backed, customized activity kits.
Debate Spaces: Connecting and empowering middle schoolers worldwide, teaching debate to foster critical thinking, cultural empathy and civic engagement.
E=MC²: An educational experience platform that accelerates learning by providing differentiated lessons and feedback.
Flare Education: Providing a workforce development program focused on career development and paid job opportunities for BIPOC high school students and those with low socioeconomic status.
Frost Education: An incentive-aligned, online bootcamp that helps deferred/waitlisted students get accepted to their dream universities.
Gedit: Providing insights for teachers based on student reactions to lessons and offering recommendations that help inform instruction and class culture.
Globaletic: A multilingual online educational platform with products and workshops about International Etiquette, Protocol and cross-cultural understanding.
Harbor: Using smartphone-based AI to interpret medical imaging and support rule-outs in low-resource settings. It's a second opinion in your pocket.
Her Land: A podcast that explores how various institutions disadvantage millennial and Gen Z women by exploring timely issues.
Herstory Lab: Producing and deploying data-driven and message tested media content countering harmful "disinfo" narratives targeting women and people of color online.
Hope Storytelling Project: For those suffering from loneliness and loss, we provide poetry workshops, teaching materials and resources to help participants find community.
International Orchestra of Refugees: Connecting talented refugee musicians with good opportunities to preserve their cultural heritage, find economic prosperity, and boost social integration.
Jamii Life: A platform connecting qualified health workers with people that can’t care for themselves and families that need help.
KadaKareer: A low-bandwidth and community-based career development platform for low-income students in the Philippines.
La Huerta de Elisa: Creating nutritious baby food for children in Mexico by working with local farmers and cold-pressing our products to preserve nutrients.
Leaders Dream Big: Broadening the horizons and maximizing the potential of underserved students through annual, cost-free Washington, D.C., trips.
Mission: Mentor: An edtech nonprofit building a free, virtual college counselor for high school students.
Narratio: Activates, supports and highlights the creative expression of refugee youth through fellowships, workshops, publishing and partnerships.
New Voters: Working towards 100% U.S. high school voter registration and civic engagement via our personal mentorship program and state-specific summits and resources.
OneStep Relief Platform: A comprehensive disaster relief resource powered by the Algorand blockchain.
ProtectED Solutions: Making easy-to-move pieces of furniture that serve as physical and ballistic barriers to protect people against active shooter violence and domestic terrorism.
ReThink, Inc.: A patented, innovative app that detects offensive messages and gives users a chance to reconsider posting them.
Root: A phone-based, gamified app that promotes the learning, feedback and regular assessment of developmentally appropriate math milestones.
Sacred Innocence International, Inc.: Providing healing resources for survivors of sexual abuse to heal through online support groups and a self-directed interactive website.
Scholar Supreme: A one-stop-shop platform connecting students with extracurricular opportunities and articles written by college students.
Second Sight: Creating devices that aid visually impaired and blind people by letting them hear what they cannot see.
Slam Out Loud: Using visual and performing arts to enable children from disadvantaged backgrounds to build creativity, increase confidence and find their voice.
Snappea: A network of fridges located in convenient community locations that brings discounted produce to those experiencing nutrition insecurity.
Spotlight Perú: Providing English language learning and leadership through performing arts training to youth in Peru and around Latin America.
Stuttering Scholarship Alliance: At $15,000/year, most families cannot afford speech therapy. Stuttering Scholarship Alliance has built the first framework to provide sponsored therapy for low-income families.
TechNotes: Building an authoritative, collaboratively developed online library of detailed, practical information about engineering and tech.
The Big Sisters Project (BSP): Mentoring people of underrepresented genders in social entrepreneurship to materialize aspirations and contribute to a network of inspiration.
The Concordium: Combating the loneliness epidemic through an e-support network matching socially isolated seniors with youth volunteers via video chat.
The Equity Network: Helping Black, Latinx and Native American candidates book free, one-on-one conversations with professionals in their dream jobs.
Think and Speak Academy: Offering competitive debating classes online and in-person to secondary school students all around the world.
Thrive Industries Incorporated (Thrive!): Thrive! Equity Audits help local governments root out systemic racism in spending allocations and budget for equity with community input.
Tirana English School: Developing innovative early childhood education based on arts.
Todaydream Inc.: Providing a web platform that allows schools and nonprofits to book the largest collection of minority college-educated professionals ever assembled.
An earlier version of this article misspelled i-lab’s Build It track.
