by Katie Calabro | Sep 5, 2022
Penta is a nonprofit social venture that repurposes second-hand and surplus medical equipment from the U.S. to bring high-quality, low-cost care to amputees around the world. Founders Trang Duong ‘18. Henry Iseman, and Victor Wang were inspired to find a solution for the roughly 90% of the world’s 100 million amputees who lack access to proper prosthetic care and equipment. Founded in 2018, Penta has expanded into 16 countries and partners with nonprofit organizations, healthcare institutions, and governments around the world.
Penta was the recipient of the first ever Brown Venture Prize in 2018, and won the Yale College Dean’s Challenge on Social Innovation in 2017. It was included on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Healthcare in 2019, and was part of the Clinton Global Initiative University Innovation Fund. Read Penta’s feature in Inc. here.
From Left: Henry Iseman, Victor Wang, and Trang Duong
Photo Credit: Penta
by Jonas Clark | Sep 2, 2022
Pointz is a mobile app that helps bicyclists find the safest route to their destination. This “waze for bikes” determines these routes by using road data and crowdsourced route information. Recently, this venture was awarded the grand prize of $40K at Texas Christian University’s (TCU) Values and Ventures Competition where 42 out of 235 teams from across the globe were invited to TCU’s campus to pitch their ideas. The Pointz app is now available on the App Store and Google Play. A 2020 B-Lab and 2021 Community Lab Venture, Pointz was founded by Maggie Bachenberg ,’22 (right) and Trisha Ballakur, ’22 (left)
To learn more, read its feature in the Providence Business Journal.
Photo Credit:TCU Values and Ventures® Competition
by Katie Calabro | Aug 22, 2022
Tagg is a social medial platform founded in 2021 by Victor Loolo, ’20, Blessing Ubani, ’21, Sophie Chen, RISD ’21, Izayah Powell, ’21 and Steven Fang. Currently, being a content creator is the most coveted career of kids but only 0.25% of the market earns 100% of revenue generated in the economy. Tagg allows users to build earnings from creating content. To date, Tagg has raised over 2 million in venture funding, and 9,000 content-creators have earned from the platform. Read more about Tagg here.
Tagg was named a Top 5 Startup to Watch in San Francisco and Rhode Island in 2022. Founders say Brown was pivotal in Tagg’s initial success by gifting them an initial user-base. Later down the line, the Brown network was key in their raise as well as growth as entrepreneurs.
Top (From Left to Right): Izayah Powell, Steven Fang, and Sophie Chen. Bottom (Left to Right): Victor Loolo and Blessing Ubani
