The New Venture Competition is an annual competition sponsored by the Rock Center for Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise Initiative open to all students and alumni who are launching new business and social impact ventures. This year, climate and sustainability were topics covered by 17 student entrants, and we wanted to highlight the contestants from this year’s competition who are developing a wide range of ventures to address climate change.
WINNER: Tough Tech: Most Promising Climate Tech Venture $5,000 Prize
Grensol - Rajiv Singhal (MBA 2007), Founder & CEO; Federico Bussman, Business Development; Dr. Joseph Laux, CTO; Dr. Bhawna Nagar, Research Projects - Grensol closes the materials loop for car recycling to valorize industrial waste, recover valuable resources, and produce energy.
TOP FINALISTS
Earthbond - Chidalu Onyenso (MBA 2023)- Earthbond is a platform that connects urban Nigerians with affordable financing for clean, reliable energy. We leverage group financing and carbon accounting to lower costs and risk in the energy transition of Nigeria's $14B fuel-based, off-grid generator market.
PolyoseBio - Makari Krause (MBA 2023) - Polyose Bio is working to divert food waste away from landfills by upcycling it into high-value sugar polymers using a combination of insects and microbial cell factories.
PARTICIPANTS
Algoma Homes - Josef Bromovsky (MBA 2023) - Algoma Homes designs and builds net-zero multifamily homes using mass timber coupled with an offsite manufacturing approach.
Concentro - Inigo Rengifo Melia (MBA 2023) - Concentro aims to become a tech-enabled marketplace for tax credits (starting with renewables' ITCs), providing the technology to allow tax credits' transfers and a marketplace to enhance liquidity.
Coryntech - Malay Shah (MBA 2024) - Using a novel bacteria, Coryntech is developing low-cost, high-purity enzymes to help unlock the $4 trillion bio-economy revolution.
Greentopia - Aishwaya Amuda (MBA 2024) - B2B carbon accounting and emission mitigation software platform for enterprises in India and SE Asia
Lasso Flow - Aaron Sabin (MBA 2023) - Lasso optimizes electrochemical carbon removal by building a drug discovery platform, but for the climate - through computational chemistry, electrolyte design, and cell engineering, Lasso will make direct air capture truly cheap, clean, and scalable.
NET12 - Ibhade Eigbobo (MBA2023) - We are NET12, an MIT|HBS startup focused on accelerating a carbonless future by helping corporations reach and sustain their net zero goals efficiently.
NetaCarbon - Grace Lam (MBA 2024) - NetaCarbon is a service provider that partners with climate businesses in developing and emerging markets and provides them access to the voluntary carbon credit markets at no cost. The goal is to close the supply gap by increasing the supply of high-quality carbon credits.
Offstream - Varsha Ramesh (MBA 2023) - A platform for carbon credit project developers to navigate the complex certification and registration process. We’re the TurboTax of carbon credits, allowing you to focus on the science while we support the rest.
PARALLEL - Abdullah Al-Shakarchi (MBA 2024) - We convert vehicle lots into utility-scale storage through DC microgrids.
PowerPlanR - Benjamin Wisniewski (MBA 2025) - We replace the trial-and-error process of siting and planning grid-scale solar projects with an all-in-one software that optimizes plant design.
Prometheas AI - Sofoklis Melissovas (MBA 2023) - In ancient times, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind. Today, Prometheas AI, brings the light of hope by utilizing artificial intelligence to eliminate routine flaring, a key contributor to climate change.
Scout - Nicholas Sehlinger (MBA 2024) - Scout is a climate management platform that helps companies measure, manage, and reduce their carbon footprint.
Seia Bio - Rohin Lehe (MBA 2023) - ClimateTech startup Seia Bio has developed a suit of armor to promote microbe stability, which will improve food security and eliminate 2% of global CO2 emissions.
SmartCharge - Cathryn Hart (MBA 2024) - SmartCharge expands access to electric vehicle network by simplifying the process of financing, installing, and commercializing privately owned electric vehicle chargers.
Tierra Climate - Jacob Mansfield (MBA 2023) - You can’t reach 100% renewables without energy storage, which is currently too costly to build. Tierra Climate is a two-sided marketplace where battery projects can sell verified carbon offsets, thereby financially incentivizing batteries to be built & operated to clean the grid.