Halcyon's social innovation-focused incubator in Georgetown is selective. For their spring cohort, they received 200 applications for a total of eight spots. (That's a four percent acceptance rate, in case you were wondering.)
It makes sense: Halcyon provides five months of housing in the house, a living stipend, an 18-month program that lets founders focus on their ideas and access to Halcyon's wide network of professional investors and policy makers. And they don’t take any equity in the startups or nonprofits that come through. That combination is rare everywhere, let alone in Washington, D.C.
Halcyon recently announced the 10 fellows who will make up its seventh cohort, starting in Fall 2017. Below is the list with descriptions provided by Halcyon—
- Joseph J. James, Agri-Tech Producers, LLC— "Agri-Tech Producers, LLC (ATP) has assigned its new, patent-pending invention of a Combined Remediation Biomass and Bio-Product Production (CRBBP) Process to ATP-MD, LLC, its Maryland operating affiliate. This process cost-effectively cleans up contaminated land and water, by planting certain types of bio-crops in those sites, and using the phytoremediation capabilities of the extensive root systems of those crops to extract undesirable substances, like phosphorus, from Chesapeake Bay watershed farm soils."
- Karima Ladhani, Barakat Bundle— "Barakat Bundle is a nonprofit that provides life-saving bundles to mothers and newborns in South Asia."
- Danya Sherman, KnoNap— "KnoNap is a discreet, disposable device that detects selected dangerous chemicals within a beverage. KnoNap is a beverage napkin that looks and acts like a generic napkin but has a secretive, secondary purpose."
- Ronnie Washington, Onward Financial— "Onward Financial is a non-profit financial wellness benefit program that employers can offer to assist their workforce in establishing greater financial security."
- Brandon Anderson, Raheem AI— "Raheem AI is a Facebook Messenger Chatbot that listens to your stories about police interactions — positive and negative. The data is visualized in real-time through an online, interactive Community Dashboard shared with city governments, local police and your community."
- Elliot Roth, Spira— "Spira grows microalgae with novel food technology that enables nutrition anywhere effortlessly while absorbing carbon from the atmosphere."
- Stephen Carter, TRAXyL co-founder— "TRAXyL developed a process to deploy optical fiber called FiberTRAX that solves the last mile problem. The company is laying optical strands directly onto existing roadway surfaces and protecting them with resin."
- Daniel Turner, TRAXyL co-founder— "TRAXyL developed a process to deploy optical fiber called FiberTRAX that solves the last mile problem. The company is laying optical strands directly onto existing roadway surfaces and protecting them with resin."
- Amira Idris, Vibrating Therapeutic Apparel— "Vibrating Therapeutic Apparel (VTA) offers drug-free, wearable devices that use vibration therapy to help amputees and neuropathic pain sufferers manage pain, so they can sleep better, feel better and live better, without the risk of drug dependence, or drug side effects."
- Julia Peng, VivaVax— "VivaVax created a formulation that can protect vaccines from increased temperatures during transport and storage. VivaVax can be inserted into the cold supply chain for specialty drugs, the supply chain in the United States and vaccines in developing countries."
Images courtesy of Halcyon
