2022 Startup Challenge Finalists

We’re proud to announce this year’s Finalists for the 2022 Startup Challenge.

Teams consist of students from The Wharton School, The College of Arts and Sciences, and The School of Engineering and Applied Science.

The Startup Challenge and Showcase attracts the best and brightest entrepreneurial minds from across the Penn community as they compete for a chance to win $150,000 in cash and prizes.

NOTE: For a key to all school abbreviations, click here.

DetoXyFi

Detoxify is a for-profit social enterprise focused on helping people across the world get access to clean drinking water. At Detoxify, we’re building water filtration devices which individuals and households can use to rid the water they drink of both chemical and microbial impurities.

Dhananjay Goel, WG'22; Rishon Benjamin; Rohit Karnik

2022 Runner Up Award Winner
2022 The Jacobson Social Impact Prize Winner

Groov

Groov brings the luxury of custom insoles, the gold standard in foot support, to the mass market — affordably, conveniently, and fashionably.

Daniel Cataldi, WG'23

2022 Launch Award Winner

Impact Local

Impact Local’s mobile platform connects users with local donating and volunteering opportunities in a few clicks. The platform brings modern search, curation, scheduling and social technologies to the philanthropy space for the first time.

Ryan Davidson, WG'22

Miren

Miren empowers lenders to identify the best small business borrowers with its native-language first loan origination software and data services solutions.

Gabriela Ariana Campoverde, GEN’22, WG’22

Nemu

Nemu is developing an application to help estate representatives manage personal property transfers efficiently, fairly, and transparently, while preserving emotional and financial capital.

Sarah Powers, WG'23

2022 Ashton Family Award for Female Founders

Ossum Technologies

Ossum Technologies is an orthopedic device company harnessing steerable needle technology to pass wires around bones, providing the precision required to navigate around surgical complications.

Karan Shah, ENG'24; Ananya Dewan, C'23, W'23; Hoang Le, C'23. W'23; Shiva Teerdhala, C23, W'23; Savan Patel, ENG'23; W'23

2022 The Weiss Tech House People's Choice Award Winner

Shinkei Systems Corp.

Shinkei Systems builds robotics minimize fish waste and multiply shelf-life. From 1.2B lbs caught every day, as little as 1 in 3 fish make it to a plate; we can save the fishing industry more than $50B annually.

Saif Khawaja, W’21, G’23

2022 President's Sustainability Prize Winner
2022 Linn Family Innovation Prize Winner
2022 AI For Business Award Winner

ToxiSense

Biopharmaceutical products and drinking water must be tested for endotoxins, the sickness-causing molecule from bacteria. The current method relies on expensive horseshoe crab blood and is environmentally damaging. ToxiSense genetically engineered the Arabidopsis plant to luminesce based on the endotoxin concentration applied to it, serving as a sustainable, cost-effective solution.

Aravind Krishnan, C'25 ,W'25; Udit Garg, ENG'25; Andrew Diep-Tran (W'25); Aarush Sahni (C'25)

2022 Perlman Grand Prize Winner
2022 Robert S. Blank New Venture Collaboration Award
2022 Frederick H. Gloeckner Undergraduate Award Winner