Congratulations

VentureCat 2024 Semifinalists

We are excited to announce the 25 semifinalist teams that will be competing at VentureCat on May 22, 2024!

The chosen teams span five tracks - Business Products & Services; Consumer Products & Services; Energy & Sustainability; Life Sciences & Medical Innovation; and Social Impact.

Over the next four-weeks, the semifinalists will participate in the VentureCat Pitch Prep Program that provides access to professional graphic design services, pitch coaching and industry-specific advisors. Learn more about the teams selected to compete below.

Business Products and Services

Juxta optimizes intra-hospital patient transport, cutting delays in half and unlocking millions in revenue for health ecosystems around the country.
Undergraduate Team: John Ferrara, Weinberg + Medill '26 and Hasan Aybars Ari, McCormick '27.

Locago is a digital marketplace to discover and purchase items across independently-owned small businesses in your community.
Graduate Team: Rachel Vadhan, Kellogg + McCormick '25, Lily Bishop, Kellogg + McCormick '25; Mary Buckingham, Kellogg + McCormick '25, Taka Doi, Kellogg + McCormick '25.

Meta Frazo’s LD (Lip Dub) Pro offers AI-driven video dubbing in 60+ languages, retaining original voice and lip-sync, with unique background audio preservation and language-specific tonal adjustments.
Undergraduate Team: Gannon Schram, Weinberg '26.

Olympus is a digital platform for coaches and athletes to track, analyze, and manage their strength-based workouts.
Graduate and Undergraduate Team: Scott Tsangeos, Kellogg + McCormick '24, Matthew Chang, McCormick '25; Mia Scarpati, McCormick '25; Madi Bunker, Kellogg '24; Jiaxin "Joyce" Yi, Medill '24.

Overture Games: When Duolingo meets Guitar Hero.

Undergraduate Team: Steven Jiang, Weinberg '24.

Consumer Products and Services

Box United is a fitness and wellness company on a mission to reinvent the sport of boxing, positioning it as the ultimate tool to improve physical and mental health outcomes.
Graduate Team: Mary Kate Vanecko, Kellogg '25. 

Dendritic Health AI redefines medical training with its learning platform, Neural Consult, leveraging AI for dynamic, tailored educational tools—from real-time patient simulations to adaptive exam prep—ensuring medical students master their curriculum efficiently and effectively, backed by robust growth and market validation.

Post Graduate Team: Jonathan Theros, Feinberg + Kellogg '25; Jonathan Aguiar, Feinberg '24; and Alan Soetikno, Feinberg + Kellogg '25.

hostU matches students who are looking to sublet their place or find a place to stay, by verifying university-affiliation and algorithmically sending users direct matches.
Undergraduate Team: Bella Le Sage, Weinberg '25.

 

Supernatural Suncare is the first premium, all-natural SPF-first skincare brand for everybody, every day.
Graduate Team: Megan Black, Kellogg '24.

The Neuron helps professionals understand and use generative AI at work.

Undergraduate Team: Noah Edelman, Weinberg '25. 

Turbolearn AI: Leave your next lecture with an AI generated study guide.
Undergraduate Team: Rudy Arora, Weinberg '27.

Energy and Sustainability 

ReWear empowers students to buy, sell, trade, or borrow their clothing and accessories on campus in an effort to combat fast fashion while creating a "shared closet" for students.
Undergraduate Team: Anika Dewjee, Weinberg '26 and Colleen Charchut, Weinberg '26.

Spesland enables city managers beyond platform data visualization, to provide data analytics and actionable solutions for efficient, safe, sustainable, and smart cities.

Undergraduate Team: Leeland Zhang, McCormick '26; Zachary McCoy, Weinberg '26, and David Xu, Weinberg '26.

SPLIT Rideshare: Slash your rideshare expenses by up to 75% through peer matching, exclusive discounts at popular destinations, and cross-platform price comparison.
Undergraduate Team: Grayson Donnelly, McCormick '26 and John Hileman, McCormick '26.

SYMBA is building an end-to-end blockchain ecosystem for the management and trading of environmental assets.
Undergraduate Team: Alex Roessner, Weinberg '25 and Sean Collins, Weinberg '27.

Life Sciences and Medical Innovation

Alpime Health offers a reliable, secure, and efficient electronic medical record system, following a three-pronged objective of data storage for healthcare administrators, data representation for doctors and patients, and data analytics for hospitals starting in Côte d’Ivoire and expanding to neighboring West African countries.
Graduate and Undergraduate Team: Tahira Grewal, McCormick '26; Isaac Meite, McCormick '26; and Sophia Pi, McCormick '26; Adam O'Regan, The Graduate School + Weinberg '25.

CardioGuardian is a smart scale that combines established cardiac sensing with a novel machine learning model to screen for asymptomatic heart failure.
Post Graduate and Undergraduate Team: Adam Eckburg, Feinberg + Kellogg '25; Andrew Zbihley, Feinberg '25; Emma Rens, McCormick '24; and Josh Rubin, Weinberg '24.

EndoSight is a medical device startup that aims to improve imaging diagnostics for Endometriosis patients.

Graduate Team: Minnoli Aya, Pritzker '24; Maggie Jiang, Pritzker '24; Sravya Prabhala, Pritzker '24.

KosiSonic makes hearing easier.
Post Graduate and Graduate Team: Abhijit Roy, School of Communication + The Graduate School '25; Jakob Kuemmerle, McCormick ’24; Sebnem Dundar, School of Communications ’25, Shraeya Iyer, McCormick ’27; Grace Szatkowski, School of Communications ’26; Benjamin Amartey, School of Communications ’27. 

OsteoLeap Innovations is creating therapies for osteoarthritis regenerate cartilage, remove bone spurs, and reduce pain.
Graduate Team: Jesse Crabtree, Kellogg '24.

 

Social Impact

Bolo SafeTech uses radar and Vision AI to prevent mass-casualty events in schools and public spaces, while reducing the trauma and friction of security screenings. Zero. Mass. Shooting.
Graduate Team: Sarju Patel, Kellogg '25 and Meiling He, Kellogg '25.

JusticeArch simplifies the process of finding legal help, benefiting both individuals seeking quick legal services and attorneys looking to expand their firms.
Graduate and Undergraduate Team: Nima Ostowari, Pritzker '25 and Camila Vicens, WCAS '24.

nLab, the mini electronics lab, makes learning electronics easier, more affordable, and more accessible for everyone.
Graduate Team: Angie Mercurio, Kellogg '25 and Annie Pyle, Kellogg '25.

Project MED (Medicine, Exposure, and Development) is a 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on educating and preparing high schoolers for careers in healthcare, particularly in underserved communities.
Post Graduate and Undergraduate Team: Aru Singh, Weinberg '24; Irene Quan, Feinberg '29; Rishi Jain, Feinberg '27; Valentina Velasco, Feinberg '27; Audrey Zhou, WCAS '25; Natalia Obrochta, WCAS '25.

SteadyScrib invented the first writing utensil specifically designed for those with Parkinson’s, mitigating the effects of common writing-inhibitive symptoms associated with the disease.
Undergraduate Team: Isabelle Mokotoff, Medill '24 and Alexis Chan, McCormick '24.