Thirty-three Washington University startups have been named as semifinalists in the fall 2024 Skandalaris Venture Competition (SVC). Each venture, founded by students or recent alumni, is competing for a chance to win up to $25,000 in funding. “Each semester, we are thrilled to see students and alumni from across campus entering the competition and sharing their innovative ideas and businesses,” said Venture Development Manager Cyril Loum. “With a recording breaking 119 entries, and 80% of those being new ideas that haven’t previously participated in SVC, it’s exciting to watch the dedication and hard work each of these teams is putting into their venture and look forward to seeing all that they will accomplish!”

On October 23, 2024, the semifinalists will pitch to a panel of judges throughout the day at a closed event. Following those presentations, we invite the WashU and St. Louis community to join us in Crowder Courtyard for the Skandalaris Venture Competition Semifinals where the semifinalists return to pitch their ideas to the audience. Attendees will cast a vote for their favorite pitch – the Skandalaris Center will award the top team with a People’s Choice prize of $500! Then stick around as we announce the finalist teams moving on to the finals in November. We encourage you to join us for an exciting evening of ideas, cheer on these amazing ventures, and cast your vote for People’s Choice!

The Fall 2024 Skandalaris Venture Competition (SVC) semifinalists are:

4 Her Sport is a brand focused on uplifting, inspiring, and empowering girl and woman athletes worldwide. Christina Walker (MSW ’25)

AgeSafe Assist creates the opportunity for occupational therapists to become entrepreneurs to deliver fall prevention interventions in the homes of older adults who are at high risk for falls. Sophie Fendler (LA ’26), Susy Stark

Brain Battle is a competitive mobile gaming platform that transforms traditional standardized test study methods into an engaging, social experience, fostering competition and boosting both motivation and academic success among students. Joe Poole (BU ’26), Edgar Palomino (EN ’25)

Carbon Salary helps landlords and homeowners cash in on carbon credits when they insulate or retrofit residential real estate. Jacob Hibbert (MBA ’25)

CaseGen is an LLM-powered clinical case generator and interaction simulator for medical students and residents to develop their diagnostic skills and treatment plans. Akshay Mehta (ME ’26), Karan Joseph (ME ’27)

CERV is a FemTech startup that aims to enhance maternal healthcare by improving labor monitoring with a novel medical device that will ensure accurate, comfortable, and continuous cervical dilation measurements. Elizabeth Buzbee (SI ’25), Sandy Montgomery (SI ’25), Annika Avula (SI ’25)

Chick is a probiotic skincare brand that helps to balance and restore the skin microbiome. Christina Trivisonno (LA ‘ 25), Mary Trivisonno (BU ’25)

Collaboration STL serves as a resource hub that offers capacity-building tools to LGBTQ+ and allied organizations of St. Louis. Julia Blanchard (SW ’25), Seth Kleinberg (SI ’25), Rick Ruderer

Connect is a video chat/messaging platform for high schoolers to get college and career guidance from alumni and parents from their community. Michael Lee (LA ’26), Fortuna Kadima (EN ’26), Ethan Ng (Beyond Boundaries ’27)

DogTag is a mobile app that uses existing pet GPSs, microchips, and other trackers to create and manage automatically-updated network of missing pets geospatially. Oseremen Ojiefoh (EN ’28), Varun Elagandula (LA ’28), Lotanna Okoli (EN ’28)

Eagleland is a revolutionary method to protect fruit trees of any size from wildlife damages. Jack Zhang (BU ’26), Roy Li

Element is a full-circle marketplace that connects verified artisans from Latin America with buyers in the US. Maria Kamila Severiche Buelvas (MBA ’24)

Flashcardify is an AI study tool that uses active recall strategies to help students learn more effectively. Vraj Patel (EN ’25), Jaxon Poentis (EN ’27)

Gradeble is a grading automation software for teachers. Joey Sparks (EN ’25), Matthew Klonecki

HeartEDU LLC aims to provide accessible and low-cost CPR and First Aid training to the Saint Louis community to put lifesaving skills into everyone’s hands. Nicholas Agostin (LA ’24), Wendy Wang (LA ’25), Emily Stoller (LA ’24)

InfantIQ is a cutting-edge smart baby bottle designed to provide real-time health monitoring to ensure infant safety and well-being with every feed. Anish Kohli (LA ’27),  Christien Wong (BU ’27),  Ahmed Metti (EN ’27)

Innovative Beverage Can is a new beverage can design that improves upon existing market solutions. Gavin Hart (LW ’26)

Menalated is a hair care and grooming brand for men with textured hair. Jeffrey Clorissaint (GM ’26)

Morpheus is an AI game development copilot. Cadi Zhang (BU ’25), Matthew Tiemann (BU ‘ 23)

Nexus Labs is a one-stop database for financial management and inventory tracking to assist medical research labs locate and fix inefficiencies. Pavan Kolluru (BU ’26), Rahul Kavuru (BU ’26), Arjun Mathur (LA ’26)

Page Pacer is an online reading tool that helps people read faster and stay focused. Aaron Hubhachen (EN ’27), Yenifer Alvarez (BU ’25), Al Schulz (GM ’25), Luke Wuri

Phoenix is a prosthetic with interchangeable parts designed for easy adjustment and customization using household tools. Lili Hostetler (SI and MBA ’24)

Portal is a career exploration tool helping you see inside careers through short-form videos made by professionals. Brad Raizner (BU ’26), Eric Tabuchi, Brian Yu

Quture helps GenZs find their personal style with ease by connecting the fashion communities worldwide via UGC content; allowing creation, inspiration, and exchange to all take place with the click of a button. Rey Yu (BU ’26), Emily Han (BU ’26), Austin Perez (EN ’26)

R.E.C.A.L.L. is a contextual sentiment-based information retrieval system that allows natural language searches across thousands of documents, whether OCR-readable or scanned. Elliot Mermel (LW ’26)

Rasa Chai is bringing an authentic chai experience to the US. Shradha Challa (MBA ’24)

SheScreen is an affordable, at-home cervical cancer test, similar to a pregnancy test, that aims to provide early detection and improve health outcomes for women in rural and low-income areas who face barriers to accessing preventive healthcare. Adara Ezekwe (EN ’25), Kayla Gorin (EN ’25), Dillon Colbert (EN ’25), Jessica Lozoya (EN ’26)

Shocker is a less lethal weapon that combines the all-situations effectiveness of a gun with the much lower lethality of a Taser. Zach Cohen (LW ’26)

TravelAI is an AI-powered platform that curates personalized, real-time travel itineraries, optimizing every aspect of your journey based on preferences, budget, and live data. Deyuan Yang (SI ’26)

Unboxed Gems obtains furniture from people who don’t need it anymore, then sells and delivers it to students. Haad Zahid (MBA ’25), Josh Samuel (MBA ’25 ), Dillon Stawiarski, Donald Carter

UniLink connects startups to exceptional intern and new grad talent. Rohan Kamalakantha (BU ’25), Harry Gao (EN ’25), Jason He

Wrapper AI is a SaaS, fully customizable data security tool for business compliance regulation. Jing Gao (EN ’25), Rosie Tang (EN ’27), Mercury Wang (FA ’27)

WUWA Textiles is reimagining cardboard coffee sleeves with post-industrial textile waste. Mac Barnes (EN ’26), Lucia Umbreit (EN ’26), Rachel Charendoff (EN ’25)