by Jonas Clark | Sep 9, 2022
Omena is a non-profit organization committed to increasing awareness of emotional abuse in Madagascar’s educational system by providing tools for students to combat and stand up to abuse. Currently, Omena has 100+ volunteers around the world and has expanded to 13 countries (and counting). The Forbes 30 Under 30 accoladed organization was profiled in the Boston Globe here.
Omena was featured on MTVU Stories, now known as Cheddar University, which brought her story to the mainstream. The nonprofit is supported by the Clinton Foundation. Founder Francesca Raoelison, ’22 was a PEIR, Brown Venture Prize 2021 finalist, and 2019 B-Lab Alum.
Photo Credit: Francesca Raoelison
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 Jonas Clark | Sep 6, 2022
When it comes to summer opportunities like internships, college students face challenges not only in securing these professional opportunities but also in financially supporting themselves–especially in metropolises with high costs of living. Pangea is a marketplace startup connecting college talent with companies, ensuring students can access funded entry-level opportunities and build professional experiences. Jobs are flexible and remote. The Y-Combinator backed venture has raised over $3 million.
Since the company was founded in 2017, Pangea has now expanded to 1500 college campuses. Pangea was founded by Adam Alpert, ’17 and John Tambunting, ’17, both members of the 2017 B-Lab cohort.
From Left: Adam Alpert and John Tambunting
Photo Credit: Pangea
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 4, 2022
Due to the laborious, time-intensive, and expensive nature of soil testing, farmers typically only sample their soil once every four years. Perennial (formally Cloud Agronomics) leverages machine learning, ground observations, and remote-sensing to measure and map soil carbon and land-based emissions at continent-level scales, providing innovative best practices to assess and predict global agricultural production health.
Recently, they raised $18M in their Series A funding round, bringing their total amount of funding to $25M. Its product that measures the amount of carbon in global farmland soils was also recently selected by the United Nations as one of the Top 100 Global Projects using AI to solve UN Sustainable Development Goals. Perennial was founded by Brown alumni Alex Zhuk, ’20, Jack Roswell, ’20, and David Schurman, ’20. Read their Forbes profile here.
From Left: Alex Zhuk, Jack Roswell and David Schurman
Photo Credit: Brown University
