2023 New Venture Competition Winners
Meet the NVC winners! These 15 teams collectively won $163,000 in cash prizes.
Nearly 200 judges from all over the world have chosen the 2023 winners in the Business Goods & Services, Consumer Goods & Services, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Social Innovation, and Explorer Tracks. We also awarded 9 other cash specialty prizes.
Congratulations to all the teams!
417
Total Participants Entered
161
Total Teams Represented
$163K
Total Cash Awards
Business Goods & Services
Ellexco
Lingchen Kong SEAS '24
Xitong Liu SEAS Faculty Member
Technologies to extract lithium from unconventional aqueous sources are needed to meet the future lithium demand. Ellexco has envisioned a novel idea to extract lithium from brines. Ellexco offers a chemical-free, electricity-driven innovative technology to directly convert geothermal brine to lithium hydroxide, which would lower environmental impacts and carbon footprint.
$20,000
Business Goods & Services 1st place winner ($10,000)
Cirrus Labs' Best Tech Venture ($10,000)
amplifIED
Kimberly de la Pena GWSB '23
Gaby DeAndrade GWSB '23
Lana Synder GWSB '23,
Lauren Loadvine GWSB '23
AmplifIED is a comprehensive DEI solution platform that provides a customizable dashboard with the ability to update in real-time. AmplifIED offers data analytics to drive progress, measures success towards an inclusive workplace, and access to advisory services. This platform's differentiation is the transparency offered from HR to employees.
$15,000
Business Goods & Services 2nd place winner ($7,500)
Equity and Inclusion Prize ($7,500)
NFBus
Edoardo Brunello GW Exchange Student '23
Enrico Sgarbossa
NFBus is an online marketplace through which bus companies offer their tickets as digital tokens. This allows them to retain more control, save costs, and introduce ticket reselling. Buyers can instead compare, purchase, and enforce policies through a single platform that accepts both fiat and crypto currencies.
$5,000
Business Goods & Services 3rd place winner ($5,000)
Consumer Goods & Services
Immorta
Sonia Schmidt GW Law '24
Devan Geib
Immorta is a social media platform where users can upload, store, and share multiple types of media – photos, videos, stories, recipes, and more. This platform will serve as a collective memory book, where loved ones’ legacies can be celebrated during their life and preserved beyond their death.
$17,500
Consumer Goods & Services 1st place winner ($10,000)
Best Storytelling ($7,500)
Seeker
Sebastian Ewel GWSB '23
Aditya Jaju GWSB '23
Seeker will provide guarantor services to international students renting apartments in the US, enabling them to secure housing without a US-based guarantor, in exchange for a fee, also giving landlords peace of mind.
$15,000
Consumer Goods & Services 2nd place winner ($7,500)
Best Financial Understanding ($7,500)
J Street
Millicent Li GWSB '23,
Kennedy Generalli GWSB '23,
Camila Zamalloa GWSB '23,
Gerel Enkhbol GWSB '22
A coffeehouse serving locally-sourced specialty drinks, while providing relaxation, connection, and creation through art. J Street seeks to be a space for customers to rent coloring or other art supplies at their leisure, with a good cup of coffee at their side to open up their creative channels.
$5,000
Consumer Goods & Services 3rd place winner ($5,000)
Health Care & Life Sciences
CRYODough
Iris Brammer SMHS '26
Cryodough is a reusable dough that is malleable even below 32ºF and delivers consistent cooling without restricting movement that can be sculpted for any area of the body. Cryodough is a household essential for first aid, especially for homemakers, to rapidly ice accidental burns without interrupting cooking and busy activities.
$17,500
Health Care & Life Sciences 1st place winner ($10,000)
Best MVP ($7,500)
NFTY
Abhisri Ramesh SMHS '26,
Abdulla Ahmed SMHS '26
Rithvik Chekuri SMHS '26
Phillip Parel SMHS '26
Avanthika Ramesh
Currently, providers share medical images by burning >150 million CDs annually, a process that is expensive, unprotected, and incompatible. NFTY utilizes blockchain to streamline the sharing of medical images in a way
that is secure, private, and HIPAA-compliant for private practice imaging centers and patients that require frequent imaging.
$15,000
Health Care & Life Sciences 2nd place winner ($7,500)
Best Customer Discovery ($7,500)
Kornerstone Health Solutions, LLC
Louis Eke, PhD SMHS '24
The present proposal integrates a nano-tech wearable mouthguard device designed as a concussion tracking device in real-time. The device synthesizes the brain-wave imaging, releasing the results to a phone and computer for clinical neurological assessment and prompt response.
$5,000
Health Care & Life Sciences 3rd place winner ($5,000)
Social Innovation
MiCorte
Rafael Caballero GW Law '25
Santiago Perez
MiCorte is a text message/WhatsApp service that will automatically check
immigration court hearing information from the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) and notify immigrants in real-time about changes to hearing date/time, location, or presiding judge. MiCorte guarantees immigrants will not miss hearings and helps them avoid in absentia orders.
$17,500
Social Innovation 1st place winner ($10,000)
Quinn Prize for Social Impact ($7,500)
YIMU
Yijia Gu GWSB '24
YIMU is a non-profit organization committed to support Chinese and Asian sexual minority women through producing documentary series, broadcasts and films. Our mission is to raise public awareness of the Chinese and Asian LGBTQ+ women community to eliminate stereotypes, improve mental health and trigger social change.
$15,000
Social Innovation 2nd place winner ($7,500)
Viewers' Choice Award ($10,000)
ADF (AgDev Fund)
Brent Miller GW Law '25
AgDev Fund is a global private equity fund which provides a global investment platform in the agri-food sector. ADF will focus on food-value chain investments in East Africa, providing increased food security to the region and a diversified, high-profit investment for investors.
$5,000
Social Innovation 3rd place winner ($5,000)
Explorer
GlobeER
Olivia Ouimet GWSPH '25
Nitya Bonda GWSPH '25
GlobeER is developing a technology to mitigate the concern of finding healthcare services in a foreign country for travelers who experience a health crisis. GlobeER aims to reduce the burden of healthcare emergencies by providing a worldwide database of healthcare institutions in the palm of your hands.
$1,500
Explorer 1st place winner ($1,500)
Liquid Handling Robot
Daniel Liu Schmid SEAS '23
Ruby Limanowski SEAS '23
Orooluwa Emmanuel SEAS '23
Helen Knight SEAS '23
Joshua Welch SEAS '23
Liquid Handling Robot aims to revolutionize the handling of small live biological samples with their computer-controlled robot. With a focus on delicately extracting and dispensing soft cell spheroids while preserving their integrity, their functional prototype promises to be a game-changer in the field of biomedical engineering.
$1,000
Explorer 2nd place winner ($1,000)
Circinus
Sarah Ahmad GWSB '26,
Jiajie (Steven) Qi GWSB '24
Circinus revolutionizes vacations and travel planning by leveraging AI and
Machine Learning to automatically generate a dream itinerary based on your
travel destination, budget, and interests. You have the power to discover your dream destination like a traveler, not just a tourist. Circinus brings relaxation back into your vacation.
$5,500
Explorer 3rd place winner ($5,000)
Spirit of NVC award ($5,000)
Some of Our Sponsors
