Babson College has named the winners of its annual Babson Entrepreneurial Thought & Action challenge, a competition in which students and alumni compete for a share of $150,000 towards their startups.
Babson, a private college in Wellesley, emphasizes entrepreneurship education. The BETA competition is in its 13th year, and aims to provide support and financing to ventures that are creating an impact. Competitors in three categories, undergraduate, graduate, and alumni ventures, pitch their ideas to a panel of judges.
This year, nine startups competed in the finale, with grand prize winners walking away with $25,000, plus additional funds for special category winners. Here are the winners.
Undergraduate student winner: BOND App
The student winner is Chloe Samaha, a current junior at Babson, with her venture BOND, an app that connects managers of virtual teams with their employees. The app says it gamifies the employee engagement process.
The students runners up were Jake Ross with Build You Marketing, and Brock Alpher with Sneaker Soul.
Graduate student winner: ReviMo
The graduate student winner is Aleksandr Malashchenko, who will be graduating with an MBA this spring. Malashchenko’s venture ReviMo creates robotic mobility devices that assist individuals get out of bed and complete independent tasks.
Graduate students runners up were Luis Martin with Develop US and Gopika Maheshwari with Plantex Tech.
Alumni winner: Jahazii
The alumni winner is Vaidehi Tembhekar, who graduated from Babson with an MBA in 2021, with her venture Jahazii. The startup is working to bridge the financing gap on the African continent by building lending infrastructure to help lenders deploy capital faster.
Additional cash prizes in special awards categories were awarded to Plantex Tech, Jahazii, Snug Scrubs, BOND, and ReviMo.
