News
Join Our Weekly Bulletin
Stay up to date on the latest entrepreneurship news, programs and opportunities.
Friday, April 12, 2024
D.Sole Co-founders Win $25K Investment at the Rice Business Plan Competition
Forty-two of the best student ventures from top universities across the world competed in front of nearly 350 angel, venture capital and corporate investors on April 4-6, 2024 at the 2024 Rice Business Plan Competition. Among the finalists was D.Sole, a smart insole that utilizes multimodal sensors for the early detection and monitoring of foot complications such as ulcers in diabetic patients, co-founded by CMU's James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows Saisri Akondi and Zilin Zhang.
The team bought home $5K in cash and $25K investment from Rice Alliance. D.Sole is currently participating in the Techstars Healthcare Accelerator in Los Angeles, CA.
Thursday, April 11, 2024
Advanced Optronics CEO Jay Reddy Is Helping Surgeons Do Their Job Better
Jay Reddy, a California native, came to Pittsburgh to attend Carnegie Mellon University for graduate school, and decided to stick around to co-found and run Advanced Optronics Inc., a Pittsburgh-based biotech company that uses sensor technology and flexible materials to help surgeons do their jobs better. Jay was recently featured in the Pittsburgh Business Times' Personalities of Pittsburgh.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Galen Health To Compete at Hult Prize Mumbai Summit 2024
Galen Health, founded by Logan Nye, MD (James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow), has been officially selected to compete at the Hult Prize Mumbai 2024 Summit hosted in partnership with SDA Bocconi Asia Center on June 7- 9, 2024. The company's flagship product OncoSight, harnesses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) for early cancer detection and treatment, with a primary focus on pancreatic cancer.
Friday, April 5, 2024
Founder of ShopKirana Named Disruptive Retailer of the Year
ShopKirana, co-founded by Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Sumit Ghorawat ('2011), Deepak Dhanotiya and Tanutejas Saraswat and headquartered out of India, was just named Disruptive Retailer of the Year by the Economic Times. ShopKirana is a commerce company focused on technology and supply chain innovation that aims to empower retailers to be competitive by providing technology, operational expertise and scale advantage.
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Tepper School of Business Alumnus Todd Medema Receives 2024 Undergraduate Alumni Award
In a post via LinkedIn, John Segenberger, Executive Director of Alumni Relations at the Tepper School of Business, announces that Todd Medema (TPR/BS 2014) is the recipient of the 2024 Tepper Recent Undergraduate Alumni Award in recognition of his career success and his ongoing support of Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business. Todd, also a mentor with the CMU Swartz Center, is a founder, entrepreneur and innovator—all while co-authoring a best-selling book, co-founding Fabricate.IO and pursuing his interest in clean energy.
Todd will receive his award at the upcoming Tepper Alumni Awards Ceremony at Acrisure Stadium on April 20, 2024.
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Toyz Electronics Is Empowering Gen Z
In a recent feature in the Pittsburgh Technology Council newsletter, Toyz Electronics—founded by Damola Idawu and his son Wole—was featured for its positive impact on Generation Z, which has recently joined the workforce, marking a new era of growth and challenges. Employers have already identified a generational skill gap that could potentially result in trillions in lost revenue. Toyz Electronics combines gaming, a marketplace and online learning platforms all into one immersive platform.
The company is an MIT Solve finalist for Anti-Racist Technology and runner-up in the Richard King Mellon Foundation pitch competition. In 2022, the company raised a $500K seed round
Friday, March 29, 2024
Gather AI Raises $17M in Round Led by Bain Capital
Gather AI, maker of computer vision and AI-powered warehouse inventory monitoring solutions, has announced a $17M Series A-1 led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Tribeca Venture Partners, Dundee Venture Capital, Expa, and Bling Capital. The new funding provides a total of $34M raised to date. It will be invested in scaling operations as Gather AI continues to attract customers by solving supply chain issues with richer data and AI. Gather AI is co-founded by CMU alumni Sankalp Arora, Daniel Maturana and Geetesh Dubey.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Lowercarbon Capital Partner Christina Chang Visits the Swartz Center
Dr. Christina Chang, partner at Lowercarbon Capital, visited Carnegie Mellon University for its Energy Week last week and also stopped by the CMU Swartz Center on Friday, March 22 to give a talk, 'Lab to Climate Venture: Solving Problems that Matter'. During the lunchtime talk, Dr. Chang shared career lessons learned--from academia and government, to founding a climate tech startup and investing and how the company backs companies that make real money slashing CO2 emissions and more.
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
The Swartz Center Hosts CMU Venture Challenge
The CMU Venture Challenge, sponsored by the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, is an annual startup competition held by the Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Association. Held at the Swartz Center on Saturday, March 23, 2024, the event showcases innovative ideas and entrepreneurial talent from across the nation. This year, twelve finalists competed for $9K in cash prizes, $5K of legal services, expedited interviews with Dorm Room Fund and Contrary, and office hours with Y Combinator.
The winners are:
First-place; CMU, KnitFit (CMU), founded by Pratyay Didwania (Innovation Scholar)
Second-place; Fetal Therapy Technologies, Selena Shirkin
Third-place; Pananosis Laboratories, Joseph Yu
Thank you to the judges: Shomik Ghosh, Norman Sadeh, Don Morrison, Paritosh K., and Amy E. Storms Sable, and to this year's speakers: Lucy Guo and Blake Scholl, who gave empowering advice to the young entrepreneurs who attended. Dave Mawhinney, Swartz Center Executive Director, coordinated the judges and led the closing ceremony.
Friday, March 22, 2024
Announcing the Winners of the 2024 McGinnis Venture Competition
After an intense, multi-round competition that kicked off in early January, the 2024 McGinnis Venture Competition was held at the Swartz Center on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. Held in person and also live streamed, the final round teams completed their final pitches to twelve esteemed judges competing for $60K in investments. Teams from CMU Africa and CMU Qatar also participated virtually.
The winning teams are:
Graduate Track:
- First Place ($25K): J.P. Robotics, mapping big problems in small pipes using robotics and AI. Team members: Tina Tian
- Second Place ($15K): Galen Health, AI for Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer. Team members include: Logan Nye, MD (Swartz Fellow) and Kushagra Agarwal.
- Third Place ($10K): Sitewiz, AI-driven iterative optimization for e-Commerce websites. Team members include: Ram Potham (Innovation Scholar), Rohit Malhotra and Drake Som.
Undergraduate Track:
- First Place ($4K): Assurif.ai, boosts efficiency for mortgage underwriters in lower markets, plagued by redundant tasks making up to 75% of workflow. Team members include Alex Chen, Joey Park, Andrew Kang, Erik Wang and Meher Sujay Kaky.
- Second Place (2.5K): KnitFit, custom-fits compression garments using machine knitting. Team members include: Pratyay Didwania (Innovation Scholar) Astha Shah, Advika Jayanti (Innovation Scholar) and Sreekar Kunaparaju.
The undergraduate track winners were also awarded a place in the CMU Venture Challenge, which will be held on Saturday, March 23, 2024.
Congratulations to all of the McGinnis Competition winners, participants and final round teams, as well as this year's judges: Alicia McGinnis and her two sons Lochlan and Manus, Meredith Meyer Grelli, Ed Engler, Laurie Barkman, Lisa Frankovitch, Afshan Khan, Zach Malone, Andrew Rabin, Aaron Tainter
and John Levinson.
Friday, March 22, 2024
Seven Lessons he learned from Jerry McGinnis
At the McGinnis Competition celebration, Will Kaigler shared Seven Lessons he learned from
Jerry McGinnis. See the full tribute (pdf).
- Develop your core talent and be world class at it.
- Innovation is not an academic exercise. Get hands on with the people that you are trying to help, know your customer!
- Solve a big enough problem where you can make a significant impact.
- Entrpreneurship demands commitment and many long hours of work, so do something you love and are passionate about. Never lose sight of your "why".
- Never quit! Every company has a moment like this. Successful entrepreneurs look for solutions and are always optimistic.
- Keep your mind and your eyes open to the unexpected opportunities.
- Have fun! Entrepreneurship is about solving problems, making a difference and following your passion. If that is not fun to you, well then you're doing it wrong.
This year's McGinnis Competition was in loving memory of Jerry McGinnis.
Friday, March 15, 2024
Efficient Computer Secures $16M in Seed Round
Efficient Computer, a startup with Carnegie Mellon University ties, has raised $16M in a seed funding round led by Eclipse Venture. Efficient is introducing a computer processor it says is up to 100 times more energy-efficient than leading models in the current market. Carnegie Mellon professor Brandon Lucia is co-founder and CEO.
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Refiberd Co-founders Included in 2024 Tartans on the Rise
From operatic stages and virtual worlds to industrial warehouses and medical research labs, Carnegie Mellon University’s 2024 Tartans on the Rise are transforming the planet through their artistic expression, scientific exploration, entrepreneurial spirit and visionary innovations. Carnegie Mellon alumni Sarika Bajaj and Tushita Gupta, co-founders of Refiberd—a 2020 VentureBridge program startup that performs intelligent sorting for textile-textile recycling—are among those in the new class.
Thursday, March 14, 2024
ESTAT Actuation Selected for Robotics Factory Residency
Five Pittsburgh-based robotics companies have been accepted to the Robotics Factory’s Scale Residency program, including 2021 VentureBridge startup ESTAT Actuation. The companies will receive one year of access to the Robotics Factory’s space in the Tech Forge building, and will be provided with connections to potential grant funding and local manufacturers, among other benefits.
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
U. S. Steel Makes Strategic Investment in Pittsburgh-Based Autonomous Warehousing Pioneer--Freespace Robotics
United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) (“U. S. Steel”) today announced a strategic investment in Pittsburgh-based Freespace Robotics, a pioneering manufacturer of robotic storage and retrieval systems that are in demand by warehouses worldwide. Carnegie Foundry is a unique Robotics and AI venture studio, headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA. In partnership with the world leader in autonomous robotics and AI - the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) at Carnegie Mellon University.
Friday, March 8, 2024
RET Ventures Leads $7.5M Series A in Conservation Labs to Interpret Sound for Water Conservation and Machinery Maintenance
Conservation Labs, an artificial intelligence (AI) company that developed a groundbreaking platform that decodes audio data into actionable insights in the built environment to reduce carbon emissions and energy and water usage, today announced that it has raised a $7.5M Series A funding round. The round was led by RET Ventures’ Housing Impact Fund and included the participation of Sustain VC. Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Mark Kovscek is founder and CEO.
Thursday, March 7, 2024
Carnegie Mellon Founded Holy Cow Productions' New Game to Join PlayStation's Incubator Program—India Hero Project
Holy Cow Productions, co-founded by Goutham Dindukurthi, ETC 2010 alumnus and Vinay Ramakrishna, have announced that its newest game, Requital: Gates of Blood, has been chosen to be a part of PlayStation’s incubator program–India Hero Project. The game is one of five games from India to be accepted into PlayStation's incubator program. Holy Cow Productions is an independent game development studio located in the Silicon Valley of India, Bangalore.
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Adam Paulisick Featured on Apple Podcast Dealing with Mental Health and Entrepreneurship
Adam Paulisick, CMU Swartz Center EIR, adjunct professor and CEO, SkillBuilder.io, was recently featured on a podcast: The Ripple Effect with Stephanie Romero, Ed.D., discussing mindfulness and the transformative concept of "welcoming". Adam shares his journey, revealing how the practice of "welcoming" —accepting every moment and challenge with openness and readiness—has been a game-changer in his approach to entrepreneurship and personal fulfillment.
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Collective Selected by Forbes As One of America's Best Startup Employers
Financial solutions company, Collective, has been named by Forbes as one of America's Best Start-up Employers again this year. Collective is co-founded by Carnegie Mellon ECE alumnus Hooman Radfar, Ugar Kaner and Bugra Akcay. In a recent Linkedin post, Hooman stated, "So proud of our amazing team for continuing to invest to make our workplace better and better, all while continuing our rapid growth".
Friday, March 1, 2024
Abridge Emerges as a AI Healthcare Leader, Raising $150M Series C
Carnegie Mellon company Abridge, the leader in generative AI for clinical documentation, announced an additional $150M investment, leveraging momentum from their product’s rapid uptake among health systems throughout the nation. This raise comes just four months after their $30M Series B, and is one of the largest funding rounds made to date in generative AI for healthcare.
Abridge is co-founded by CEO Shiv Rao and Sandeep Konam, former master's student in Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University.
Thursday, February 29, 2024
ESTAT Actuation Named 2023 Co-Op Employer of the Year
ESTAT Actuation, builder of electroadhesive clutches and brakes that are ten times lighter, ten times more compact, and considerably more efficient than conventional clutch hardware, has been named 2023 Co-op Employer of the Year through a partnership with the University of Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering and the Co-op program.
The 2021 VentureBridge startup has hired twelve Pitt co-ops since the program’s inception and has provided great hands-on experience, project management and leadership skills to the students in a real-world working environment.
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Galen Health and ObviousAI Named Semi-Finalists in the 2024 Microsoft Imagine Cup
Galen Health founder and James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow Logan Nye, MD, has announced that his company is a semi-finalist in the Microsoft Imagine Cup. Co-founded with Carnegie Mellon master of Science student Kushagra Agarwal, the company is one of twenty teams selected to advance to the semi-finals out of hundreds of teams from over fifty countries.
ObviousAI, co-founded by Innovation Scholar and Neo Scholar Deniz Birlikci and Arda Akman, are also semi-finalists in the Microsoft Imagine Cup. ObviousAI is an aggregator website for fashion products that support users to search with their natural language or their own photos and screenshots. Birlikci and Akman also recently won a $50K SAFE note at Berkeley's Demo Day.
Friday, February 23, 2024
Swartz Center Executive Director Dave Mawhinney Moderates W.L. Mellon Speaker Series Event with Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah
The Tepper School of Business hosted its W.L. Mellon Speaker Series on Tuesday, February 20, 2024 with guest Niraj Shah, CEO and Co-Chairman of Wayfair. Dave Mawhinney, Professor and Executive Director at the CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, moderated the fireside chat, which covered topics such as innovation, path to success, industry trends and leadership.
Thursday, February 22, 2024
Leah Lizarondo Receives Urban League Leadership Award
The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh held its 28th annual Ronald H. Brown Leadership Awards dinner at the Rivers Casino last Friday. Leah Lizarondo, founder of 412 Food Rescue and Entrepreneur In Residence at the CMU Swartz Center, received the Community award for service to the community and fostering racial justice and inclusion.
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
D.Sole Invited to Participate in the 2024 Rice Business Plan Competition
After a competitive application season, 42 startups have been invited to compete on a global stage for more than $1M in prizes at the 2024 Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC), the largest and richest student startup competition. D.Sole, co-founded by James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows Saisri Akondi, CEO and Zilin Zhang, is among the 42 startups chosen. Operating out of the CMU Swartz Center, D.Sole is a smart insole for diabetic foot complications prevention and care.
Friday, February 16, 2024
The Swartz Center Hosts Family Business Speaker Series Talk with George Tong, President, Gemini Foods
A student of demography and anthropology, George Tong, Tepper MSIA'90 and CEO of Gemini Foods, recognized the US's changing demographics and settlement patterns early. This insight enabled him to radically scale his family's Food Distribution company into one that has carried Asian food brands across the country and into our homes.
George gave an exceptional UBS Family Business Leadership Talk last week, led by Tepper School of business Faculty and EIR Meredith Grelli—where he talked through the importance of having a BIG vision, inspiring a packed house of entrepreneurs at the Swartz Center, fueled by a Build Your Own Boba bar.
This UBS Family Business Leadership Series talk was the second of this academic year. The third and final speaker of the year will be Helen Hanna Casey, CEO of Hanna Holdings on Wednesday, March 13, 2024.
Find out more and register.
Thursday, February 15, 2024
Advanced Optronics and Carnegie Mellon University Awarded $650K NSF Gran to Develop Bio-Inspired Medical Instruments
Advanced Optronics Inc, a medical sensor technology startup, has been awarded a $650K National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator Phase-I grant, along with Carnegie Mellon University. The convergence research will develop medical instruments that sense their own shape changes during complex surgeries to provide real time tactile feedback to surgeons.
Carnegie Mellon alumnus Jay Reddy is the CEO of Advanced Optronics, which was a participant in the Swartz Center's 2022 VentureBridge program.
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Carnegie Mellon University Team Wins First Place at VCIC Mid-Atlantic Regional Finals
Congratulations to our Carnegie Mellon team that won first place last weekend at the VCIC (Venture Capital Investment Competition) Undergraduate Mid-Atlantic Regional Finals. The team is composed of members of Scottie Ventures, CMU's undergraduate venture capital club based in the Swartz Center. For the first time, CMU will be moving on to the VCIC Global Finals at UNC-Chapel Hill in April!
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Edulis Therapeutics' Spencer Matonis Announces Win of Up to $5M at The Future of Capitalism Startup Competition
Carnegie Mellon Material Science and Engineering Ph.D. and James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow Spencer Matonis, co-founder of Edulis Therapeutics, announced his win of up to $5M at the first The Future of Capitalism Tech Startup Competition held in London last week.
Edulis, co-founded by Dr. Vladimir Lamm, is a US drug delivery company aiming to transform the diagnosis and treatment of Crohn’s and Parkinson’s disease by revolutionizing gastrointestinal medicine through the development of an endoscopic drug delivery system that could help over 1M patients.
Friday, February 9, 2024
Skincare Leader Partners with Nimble to Rapidly Advance Its Fulfillment Process
Skincare leader Hanacure has announced its partnership with Nimble, founded by Carnegie Mellon University alumnus, Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow and CEO Simon Kalouche, to automate its fulfillment operations. By partnering with Nimble—the next-gen 3PL—Hanacure now uses advanced AI robotic technology to more quickly and efficiently pick, pack and fulfill orders.
Thursday, February 8, 2024
Galen Health Wins $1K Spark Grant
Galen Health, a healthcare startup using AI to end pancreatic cancer, was selected as one of five featured teams at last weekends 2024 TartanHacks final showcase in Pittsburgh, winning a Spark Grant for $1K from the Swartz Center's Project Olympus incubator program. Galen Health was selected out of ninety teams from fifteen colleges.
Co-founded by CMU Master of Science students Logan Nye, MD (Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow), and Kushagra Agarwal, Galen Health aims to revolutionize the early detection of pancreatic cancer through its cutting-edge AI platform. For their TartanHacks project, Logan and Kushagra developed and trained a collection of AI algorithms that analyze patient information and clinical notes found in hospital electronic health records to determine the patients' risk of being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Tepper School of Business MBA Makes Poets&Quants Most Disruptive MBA Startups of 2023 List
Carnegie Mellon 2023 MBA graduates Max Holmes and Ani Kapuria are co-founders of Conduit, maker of talent optimization tools that prevent burnout, reduce turnover, boost productivity and maximize profits. Max was recently included in Poets&Quants 'Most Disruptive MBA Startups of 2023' list for Conduit, which is also a participant in the Swartz Center's VentureBridge program.
Thank you to our Swartz Center Patrons
