Introducing the 2020 Pennovation Accelerator Cohort
The 2020 Pennovation Accelerator officially launches Monday, June 8th for the program's third summer (and the first virtual)!
The cohort of ten startup companies were selected out of 70 total applications and represent a variety of industries across software, medical devices, and consumer products. The 6-week curriculum will focus on the makings of a strong pitch, from business model to storytelling, and will culminate in a Virtual Pitch Day on Thursday, July 16th (save the date!).
It is a pleasure to introduce the ten companies:
Buoyant is a telemedicine service dedicated to helping people with migraines get continuous and personalized care. Migraine is a chronic condition that affects ~40M people in the U.S., most commonly working age adults and women. With a Buoyant membership, patients are paired with migraine-specific doctors for personalized care from the comfort of their home, accessing a full suite of offerings including virtual consultations, prescription medication, lifestyle treatment plans, and messaging with their doctor.
Green Ablutions is on a mission to prove less plastic is fantastic with zero-waste haircare bars. Built from personal necessity, Green Ablutions’ sustainable shampoo and conditioner bars work better than traditional liquid formulas while conserving resources and giving back to the environment. Every Green Ablutions bar replaces up to three plastic bottles! Green Ablutions provides solutions for consumers in a time of global climate crisis.
Headway is improving surgical team communication in Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) with a hands-free pointer device for surgical monitors in the OR. Headway saves time in the operating room, improves educational experiences for the next generation of attending surgeons, and supports more collaborative team dynamics in this high-stakes environment.
MielBar is the first hair care brand committed to simplifying, customizing, and tailoring the deep conditioning experience for curly and wavy hair using only all natural ingredients. They provide ongoing customized deep conditioning treatments and guides that adjust with your lifestyle, environment, and unique hair needs.
MyGrow Design develops innovative biomaterial-based products and ecological solutions. MyGrow Design believes materials and products can be grown; not assembled. Their work, technologies, and designs invent around existing perceptions of waste. MyGrow Design’s first product is MyGrow™ Helmet, a bicycle helmet entirely biologically grown utilizing fungi; invented by Founder, William Henry Felinski.
The Pawsitive community helps you raise a healthy and happy dog. Pawsitive motivates dog-owners to maintain consistent fitness routines and wellness milestones with their pets by using social incentives. The app matches dog owners with buddies and groups, and pet parents earn “paw points” for completing fitness goals and training goals. They can use these paw points towards discounts for partner healthy pet brands (dog food, dog toys) and expert services (dog training, nutritionist consultations). Pet parents gradually learn more about their pets by completing survey questions each week, which also helps the Pawsitive team make better, more personalized recommendations.
Percepta develops real-time, AI-powered video analysis software that detects shoplifting in retail stores at 3x the accuracy of loss prevention (LP) personnel at a fraction of the cost, all the while preserving shoppers’ privacy and mitigating racial, gender, and age biases. Shoplifting costs retailers 30-60% of profits each year, yet LP still relies on manual monitoring of CCTV feeds to identify shoplifters. This monitoring only detects ~30% of incidents and unconscious biases influence shoplifter detection. Percepta provides increased detection accuracy without ever using shoppers' race, gender, or age.
Pression is a human-performance technology company, focusing on the 10M athletes in the US who each year spend $10B on gear, clothes, software, and services to improve their performance on and off the field. The Pression Wave active compression system is a first-of-its-kind wearable device that substantially increases blood flow throughout the body, speeding the delivery of oxygen to power muscles and rapidly flushing the metabolites that starve performance. The result is enhanced endurance and demonstrably improved athletic performance.
SOLUtion Medical is developing more patient-friendly delivery systems for reconstitutable drugs. With increases in complex medical treatments administered in at-home settings, ease-of-use and patient confidence are large drivers for achieving medication adherence. With its simplified delivery system, SOLUtion Medical plans to be the leader in patient-administered reconstitutable drug delivery.
Stealth.ify is a revolutionary app that uses game-like features to incentivize social distancing. The app acts as a tracking solution for businesses to manage their stores capacity and mitigate crowds. Users can reserve a convenient time slot at their favorite gym, restaurant, and retail store while avoiding crowds and black out times while the location is being cleaned. Interactive dashboard updates with users preferences and even sends offers to their account based on past history.
