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About LAUNCH
The Columbia | IBM Launch Accelerator is a non-dilutive program for building and scaling successful companies in the areas of data transparency, big data, AI/ML, blockchain, cybersecurity, or related fields in deep tech. The goal of the program is to help the best emerging ventures succeed through education, mentorship, and business model design.
As a pillar of the Columbia IBM Center for Blockchain and Data Transparency, IBM and Columbia University have partnered to offer companies a customized program with education from industry and academic research experts, hands-on value-added workshops, active mentoring and curated customer meetings. This program is open to teams consisting of at least one team member who is a faculty, student, fellow, or recent alumni of an NYC-based accredited academic institution. University research teams are encouraged to submit their funded research outcomes for publication in academic journals, as usual.
Program Cohorts
2021
About: Fathom is helping people exercise their right to Data Portability under GDPR and CCPA by building automated tools to request, download, and organize their relationship data to make it useful for finding a job, investors, or sales
Focus Area(s): Data Transparency, Cybersecurity
Universities: Columbia University
Website: www.fathomprivacy.com
About: Fovea is an end-to-end video post-production platform for content creators and managers looking to create more content and publish faster
Focus Area(s): Computer Vision, NLP
Universities: Columbia University, CUNY
Website: www.foveainsights.com
About: GreenPortfolio is the personal finance platform that helps millennials manage their money the climate-friendly way. Their AI-enabled SaaS product scores a person's investments and card transactions so they know where they stand - as a backer of fossil fuels or as an investor in a clean energy future.
Focus Area(s): Data Transparency, FinTech, SaaS
Universities: NYU, Columbia University
Website: https://greenportfolio.com/
About: Lean Flow empowers construction teams with data
Focus Area(s): AI/ML, Data Transparency
Universities: Columbia University
Website: www.leanflow.tech
About: Letryx is a legal technology company that is focusing on developing machine learning software that aids energy lawyers in understanding customary terms in contracts
Focus Area(s): AI/ML, Legal Tech
Universities: NYU
About: Local Civics enables students and educators to build their civic engagement and community leadership skills through game-based learning. Their technology uses AI/ML to customize and personalize students' learning experiences and helps build their civic participation skills in an accessible way.
Focus Area(s): AI/ML, Ed-Tech
Universities: Columbia University
Website: www.localcivics.io
About: Mutual Aid NYC helps New Yorkers find and connect to organizations and resources in their community through our online platform, resource library, and hotline
Focus Area(s): Data Transparency
Universities: Columbia University
Website: www.mutualaid.nyc
About: RadiTube is a search engine that indexes the videos, subtitles, and comments of YouTube channels with radical or conspiratorial content
Focus Area(s): Data Transparency, Computer Vision
Universities: NYU
Website: www.raditube.com
About: The Plug is a subscription based digital news and insights platform providing trends, analysis, and distinctive journalism on the Black innovation economy
Focus Area(s): Data Transparency
Universities: Columbia University, NYU
Website: www.tpinsights.com
2020
About: Alinea Invest is an e-Learning platform that seeks to create community via educating, engaging and empowering young women on the potential of blockchain and cryptocurrencies on their future.
Universities: Barnard, Columbia University
About: Intake is a secure document collection and collaboration tool helping small- and medium-sized enterprises automate their workflows to reduce cost and improve security and scalability.
Universities: CUNY, Carnegie Mellon, Rutgers
About: Risers is a crowdfunding talent agency where investors and fans can invest in talented athletes and obtain returns on their future benefits from salaries, prize money, TV and advertising contracts.
Universities: NYU, Northeastern University
About: New Money is a private blockchain platform connecting climate change focused impact investors and raw corporate environmental data.
Universities: Columbia University Alum, NYU
About: Nirvana Labs is enabling decentralized health information exchange between providers and payers to improve patient care and reduce the $935B in administrative waste in the US healthcare system.
Universities: Columbia University Alum, Stanford, UT Austin, MIT, Harvard
About: Tabaani is a mapping solution that provides easy to follow reference-based directions for people and services in a way that is adapted to their local context.
Universities: Columbia University Alum
About: TensorPlace is a P2P marketplace where developers and researchers can monetize their deployable ML pipelines/APIs, access community-driven ML resources and enjoy verifiable reputation metrics. Their long term vision is to become the Github (and more) for the Machine Learning Development lifecycle.
Universities: Columbia University
About: The Waste Traceability Project is a blockchain-enabled platform that provides transparency and accountability in the waste supply chain by tracking it from collection to transportation, segregation, and final treatment/disposal.
Universities: Columbia University
About: xDemic is a digital credential and education platform focused on helping students and professionals redesign and develop their skill sets.
Universities: Adelphi University, Pace University, Columbia University
2019
About: BitRights is a blockchain-powered SaaS solution that helps creative enterprises efficiently license, monetize, and protect their digital assets.
Universities: Columbia University
Team Members: Chris Robichaud, Charlie Hanna
Pitch Video
About: Smart Contract interface for MakerDAO, allowing multiple parties to separate risk and leverage (CDP) from stability (DAI).
Universities: Columbia University
Team Members: David Watkins, Gilad Penn, Zachary Seligman Karen
Pitch Video
About: A trustless peer-to-peer marketplace, connecting buyers/sellers within the streetwear fashion community
Universities: CUNY CCNY
Team Members: Taehun Lim, Denny Liang, Kartikeya Sharma
Pitch Video
About: forem is building a second medical opinion marketplace. Our vision is to empower patients and enable access to easier, cheaper, faster, and multiple second opinions.
Universities: Columbia University, UNC Chapel Hill
Team Members: Kevin Han, Nir Kabessa
Pitch Video
About: Utilizing blockchain to help farmers connect to consumers by improving transparency towards food provenance
Universities: Parsons New School
Team Members: Mariana Lustosa da Costa Porto, Jidapha Tiantongnukul, Pradubwong Hongvisedchai
Pitch Video
About: Blockchain-backed financial platform to serve the needs of the world’s most vulnerable people – refugees and displaced persons
Universities: Columbia University
Team Members: Soraya Beheshti, Shikhar Bakhdar, Jon Schory
Pitch Video
About: Tokenizing real estate development
Universities: Columbia University
Team Members: Kushagra Aggarwal, Sumeet Kotaria
Pitch Video
About: Image Processing Integrated Smart contracts compliant with the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA)
Universities: Columbia University
Team Members: Sunand Iyer, Sridhar Iyer
Pitch Video
About: Curating DNA data on a permissioned blockchain for use by laboratories, doctors, and patients
Universities: Columbia University, Rutgers University
Team Members: Roger C. Hahn, Ryan Downs, Siddharth Murali
Pitch Video
2020 Founders' Spotlights
Student Venture Associate Michael Riley had a chance to virtually sit down with cohort member Amal Abid, founder of Tabaani. Taabani is an easy to use landmark-based mapping application for people in cities where the city structure is not a clear grid and where streets are not fully labeled.
Student Venture Associate Michael Riley had a chance to virtually sit down with cohort members Engir Son and Thang Nguyen, Co-founders of Risers. They are building a blockchain-enabled marketplace to tokenize athletes and convert them into investable assets. They are focused on helping their community of up-and-coming fighters raise money to invest in their careers and focus on training full-time as opposed to external revenue generation.
Student Venture Associate Michael Riley had a chance to virtually sit down with cohort members Gregory Rocco, Wayne Change, and Jacob Blish of Intake. Intake’s mission is to help small and medium enterprises collect documents and automate their document workflows to reduce their costs while improving both their security and scalability.
Mentors
Demo Day
Contact Us
Director
Lab-to-Market Accelerator Network
[email protected]
LinkedIn
Program Manager
Lab-to-Market Accelerator Network
[email protected]
LinkedIn