by Jonas Clark | Sep 20, 2022
goTeff is a snack brand powered by Ethiopian super-grain teff. The versatile snack can be enjoyed as a straight-from-the-bag snack, or as a cereal, yoghurt topper, or as a crouton alternative for salads. Products are gluten, nut, and dairy free. The startup was profiled by Boston Globe.
Additionally, goTeff works directly with Ethiopian farmers to bolster their trade. Currently, goTeff is partners with Girls Gotta Run, an organization dedicated to helping girls stay in school. goTeff, a 2019 BVP Second Place winner, was founded by Saron Mechale, ‘19.
Photo Credit: Saron Mechale
by Jonas Clark | Sep 18, 2022
Toy company Healthy Roots was founded in 2015. The company’s bestselling doll, Zoe, addresses a key lack of representation in toys. Founder Yelitsa Jean-Charles, (RISD ’16, B-Lab ’15) designed Zoe with the aim of teaching and helping children learn to love and care for their hair. Zoe’s curly, naturally textured Black hair can be washed, dried, and styled in a variety of ways. The company also provides over 30 free YouTube tutorials on how to style Zoe, with videos detailing shampooing, sectioning, and comb-outs—alongside more-elaborate lessons on mermaid braids and unicorn bantu knots.
Healthy Roots’ seed funding was led by Backstage Capital, which was joined by Lightship Capital, Broadway Angels, Alpha Bridge, The Community Fund, Sequoia Scout and a group of individuals, including Sahil Lavingia. The startup has now raised a total of $1.5 million in 2021. The doll was featured in New York Times. Zoe can be found in 1200 Target stores nationwide.
Photo Credit: Yelitsa Jean-Charles
by Jonas Clark | Sep 13, 2022
Intus Care is a healthcare analytics platform that synthesizes financial, clinical, and administrative data to identify, correlate, and visualize trends in long-term care facilities. Their algorithm integrates electronic health records, claims, and accounting software to highlight clinical risks in patients and intuitively display organizational data. In this way, clinics can predict which patients are at the most risk, providing them with personalized and timely care, while reducing caretaker burnout.
Recently, Intus Care raised $3.1M in its second round of seed funding (having previously raised $2.3M) bringing its total to $5.4M. The investment round included Preface Ventures, Jumpstart Nova and Collab Capital, Concrete Rose Capital, Brown Angel Group, Green Egg Ventures, and strategic angel investor Brynn Putnam. Intus Care was a 2020 B-Lab First Place Winner and founded by (from left to right) Sam Prado, ‘21, Evan Jackson, ‘21, Robbie Felton, ‘21, and Alex Rothberg, ‘21.
Read more here.
From left: Samuel Prado, Evan Jackson, Robbie Felton and Alexander Rothberg. Photo Credit: Nick Dentamaro
by Jonas Clark | Sep 8, 2022
oneKIN is a curated online marketplace focused on uplifting diverse indie brands and BIPOC creators. Categories include skincare, jewelry, home decor, grooming products, and books. The retail-tech company seeks to level the playing field for the solopreneurs, micro-merchants, and mom-and-pop shops in a highly saturated industry. In addition to their website, oneKIN hopes to launch oneKIN LIVE, a live stream shopping app. In 2020, oneKIN was featured in Refinery29’s “Beauty Innovator Awards.” The company was co-founded by Jasmine Gomez, ’08 and Marvin Francois.
Read their Forbes profile here.
Photo Credit: oneKIN
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
