by Katie Calabro | Sep 30, 2022
Beam Impact helps connect consumers with social impact causes by turning purchases into nonprofit donations. Beam partners with brands committed to giving back and nonprofits committed to making a difference. Customers can shop from partner brands through the app, and donate a portion of their purchase to nonprofits at no cost. In 2021, donations made through Beam’s app funded over 7 million meals for food insecure communities, 250 hours of free therapy for Black and LGBTQ+ communities, and more.
Viveka Hulyalkar ‘15 and Alex Sadhu founded Beam Impact in 2017. Read their profile in Forbes here. Beam Impact was named on the 2021 Forbes 30 under 30 list, and raised over $13 million in funding in 2022.
Photo Credit: Beam Impact
by Jonas Clark | Sep 29, 2022
Bloom is an app that teaches teens how to invest via educational modules, empowering the next generation of Americans to build wealth. Features include parental safeguards and bank-grade encryption. Additionally, Bloom works with nonprofits and student-led organizations to spread financial literacy and support the social-good finance leaders of tomorrow. It offers UTMA/UGMA custodial brokerage accounts that helps teenagers invest in a safe and educational way. Bloom was a part of 2021’s Y Combinator, and recently raised $4.3 million from investors, including from a 2020 US Presidential Candidate. As of April 2022, the app’s waitlist has over 35,000 teenagers, with 200,000+ current users.
Bloom is founded by Sonny Mo, ’21 (right) (2019 Brown Venture Prize Finalist), Allan Maman (left), and Sam Yang (middle). Bloom was recently featured in Fast Company and Forbes.
Photo Credit: Bloom
by Jonas Clark | Sep 28, 2022
Founded in 2019, Bolden Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing first-in-class therapeutics to treat central nervous system diseases such as Alzheimer’s and ischemic stroke. Their technology focuses on a key molecular pathway that stimulates neurogenesis (the birth of new neurons) in the adult brain–one that has demonstrated proof of concept in mouse models.
This 2021 Brown Venture Prize Finalist was co-founded by Johnny Page, ’24, Justin Fallon, Professor of Neuroscience, and Ashley Webb, Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology. The company received a $500,000 Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant from the National Institute on Aging in 2021.
Photo Credit: Justin Fallon, Ashley Webb, and Johnny Page
by Jonas Clark | Sep 27, 2022
Brevitē is a direct-to-consumer company that is on the path to be the most exciting backpack brand on the planet! The TikTok-viral company is entirely bootstrapped and has sold hundreds of thousands of backpacks and accessories. Brevitē’s product “The Jumper” was recently awarded the Red Dot Design Award for Product Design, the iF Design Award, the Good Design Award, and the IDEA Award. The company (a 2017 B-Lab alum) was co-founded by Brandon Kim, RISD ’18 (middle) with his brothers Dylan Kim (left) and Elliot Kim (right). In 2022, Brevitē is #604 on the Inc 5000 list.
Brevitē was recently profiled by Forbes and included on their Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2021.
Photo Credit: Dylan Kim, Brandon Kim, and Elliot Kim
by Jonas Clark | Sep 25, 2022
Casper, a sleep company that found an unmet need in a $14 billion industry, was founded 2014 by Neil Parikh, ’11, Gabriel Flateman, ’12, and T. Luke Sherwin, ’12. These founders teamed up to create a seamless and unique customer experience while also positively impacting the sleep revolution. Casper now features an expanded line of sleep products and has donated more than 700,000 products to people in need of a place to sleep.
Neil Parikh was a 2015 Forbes 30 under 30 awardee, and Casper was profiled by Forbes in 2019.
From left: Gabe Flateman, Neil Parikh, and Luke Sherwin.
Photo Credit: Joao Canziani
