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 19, 2022
Tracking down lead pipes in the U.S. is an extremely timely and expensive task. In fact, there is still relatively little data on the location of lead pipes across the country. H2OK Innovations is an IoT-enabled analytics platform providing data-driven optimization of industrial liquid systems for manufacturing. In other words, the contaminant management platform that helps industrial and manufacturing businesses optimize water usage and treatment through predictive diagnostics.
H2OK Innovations, a Brown Venture Prize Finalist, was co-founded by David Lu, ’20. Lu was a part of BrownEP and Startup@Brown. The firm was recently named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for Manufacturing & Industry. Customers include Cargill, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Ecolab and the Dairy Farmers of America.
Photo Credit: David Lu
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 17, 2022
Founded by Jessica Kim, ’00, ianacare is a virtual app that consolidates and streamlines resources to encourage, empower, and equip family caregivers. Inspired by Kim’s own struggles with caring for her mother, the app seeks to alleviate the financial and emotional burdens of caretaking. Users can organize and mobilize friends and family onto one team for easy coordination of everyday errands, such as groceries, picking up medication from the pharmacy, and arranging transportation. The app is also compatible with employers. “iana” stands for “I am not alone.”
Kim has previously served as an Entrepreneur in Residence for the Nelson Center in 2018 – 19. The firm recently raised $12.1M in funding. You can read their Forbes profile here.
Photo Credit: Jessica Kim
by Jonas Clark | Sep 16, 2022
Imperfect Foods was founded by Ben Chesler, ’15, a food waste entrepreneur who is actively working to change the food system to reduce waste and increase the amount of affordable produce available to consumers. After co-founding the Food Recovery Network, the largest student movement against hunger and food waste, Ben Chesler moved into the for-profit space with Imperfect Foods.. At Imperfect, Ben created a supply chain of “ugly” produce and other groceries that would normally go to waste in the supply chain, and turning that into products that can be sold to consumers.
Imperfect now has over 200,000 customers across 25 markets and has rescued over 100 million pounds of food. In September 2022, Imperfect Foods was acquired by online grocer Misfits Market to take their impact to a larger scale.
Photo Credit: Ben Chesler
