2024 Startup Challenge Finalists & Winners

We’re excited to announce the 2024 Startup Challenge finalists and awards presented by Venture Lab at the University of Pennsylvania.

Teams consisted of students from The Wharton School (W, WG), The School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), and The College of Arts and Sciences (SAS).

As some of Penn's best and brightest entrepreneurial minds, these teams competed for a chance to win more than $150,000 in cash prizes, in-kind support, and additional resources at the 2024 Startup Challenge Live Final presented by Venture Lab at the University of Pennsylvania on 4/12/2024 at Tangen Hall.

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Jalan Journey Global

Harrison Chong, SEAS'27; Harsha Ravindran, CAS'26; Matthew Lowe, SEAS'27

Jalan Journey is an EdTech startup that develops digital game-based learning worlds, themed around social causes, that cultivate empathy.

2024 Startup Challenge Awards:

Frederick H. Gloeckner Undergraduate Award: $10,000

Jochi

Yash Dhir, SEAS'24; Rahul Nambiar, SEAS'24
(VIP-X, Pennovation Summer Accelerator)

Jochi is an integrated management platform that enables secondary schools to effectively identify and support neurodiverse learners, ensuring no student is left behind.

2024 Startup Challenge Awards:

The Launch Award: $10,000
The AI at Wharton Award, sponsored by AI at Wharton: $10,000
Audience Choice Award: $10,000

LilyLoop

Kylie Chang, SEAS'27, W'27; Neha Chelamkuri, SAS'27, W'27; Rima Chavali, SAS'27, W'27
(Y Prize Winner)

LilyLoop delivers precise, early detection of menorrhagia with smart period products empowering menstruators to understand and act on objective menstrual histories.

2024 Startup Challenge Awards:

The Ashton Family Award: $15,000
The Robert S. Blank New Venture Collaboration Award

MediMint

Ava Ramesh, WG'25; Abhisri Ramesh, GW Med'26
(VIP-X)

MediMint is a blockchain-driven platform that facilitates cost-effective, secure, and interoperable medical image sharing between providers and patients, modernizing traditional processes dependent on physical storage mediums like DVDs, and fostering an era of patient-centered healthcare.

2024 Startup Challenge Awards:

Summer Venture Awards; $10,000

Nirby

Piotr Lazarek, ENG'25 W'25
(VIP-X)

Nirby is a real-time soil analytics and farmland management tool for large agricultural enterprises, leveraging satellite data and proprietary drone systems to deliver actionable insights within minutes. We enable up to 40% savings on fertilizer expenses and up to 15% increase in crop yields.

2024 Startup Challenge Awards:

Richard and Ellen Perlman Grand Prize: $50,000
The Thakker Family Startup Challenge Award for Business Analytics: $10,000
The Jacobson Social Impact Prize: $10,000
Summer Venture Awards; $10,000

Odyssey Notebooks LLC

Rainbow (Laan) Yeung, WG'24
(VIP-C, VIP-X, Galvanizer)

Odyssey Notebooks creates premium and sustainably-crafted notebooks with proprietary paper for fountain pen users, bullet journal artists, and every day notetakers.

2024 Startup Challenge Awards:

William G. Simpson and R. Drew Kistler Startup Challenge Award: $25,000

Probook

George Eliadis, M&T '24 (W & Eng); Ben Cervantez M&T '25 (W & Eng)
(VIP-X)

Probook automates home services dispatch (HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical). Probook plugs into ServiceTitan, combining historical data with routing optimization to match technicians to jobs 10-20% more profitably. Probook is already in use at some of the nation's largest home service businesses.

Robin

Kevin Lu, SEAS'26; Kyle Zhang, SEAS'26, W'26; Sunny Wang, SEAS'26, W'26; Bach Tran, SEAS'26

Robin is an end-to-end healthcare fraud detection tool that streamlines the process of labeling and analyzing claims as well as boosts fraud classification accuracy by over 25%, all of which aims to help solve the $100B healthcare fraud crisis within the US.

2024 Startup Challenge Awards:

The Linn Family Innovation Prize: $10,000