Every Spring, the Startup Columbia venture competition gives out non-dilutive cash prizes to the next generation of entrepreneurs early-stage ventures founded, managed, and owned by current Columbia students, or by recent Columbia alumni.
This year, prizes totaled $230,000, donated by Columbia alumni and friends to support Columbia entrepreneurs.
Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to the alumni who helped judge and mentor along the way!
Open Track, Campbell Center for Entrepreneurship at Columbia
The Startup Columbia Challenge is open to all Columbia University students and recent alumni (five years or fewer from their most recent degree) who are working on a startup.
First Place ($25,000): Sara Technology
Jiaxin Zhang (Columbia Business School)
AI-powered personalized speech therapy for children.
Second Place ($15,000): Verteel
Brian Monga (Columbia Business School)
Scalable drone delivery transforming logistics.
Third Place ($10,000): Remod
Virgil Shah (Columbia Business School)
Boosting remodelers’ sales by visualizing homes post-remodel
Millard Chan ’99 Technology Challenge, Columbia Engineering
All entries to the Technology Challenge must include one Columbia Engineering founding member and have business models based on a solid foundation of applied, solution-focused, technological innovation. Submissions for this track focus on product development, innovative design, and “builder” technologies including data analytics, biomedical solutions, software, or hardware.
First Place ($25,000): Kathedra
David Faes (Engineering), Dimitris Anastasious (Engineering),
Oliver Davila Chasan (NYU)
Kathedra is building the first upholstery robot to help premium furniture manufacturers facing severe labor shortages.
Second Place ($15,000): MilkShaker
Kavita Parikh (Engineering), Hope Hersom (Engineering) 2025
Elise Yang (Engineering), Valentina Marini Fichera (Engineering), Pricilla Dua Engineering)
Automated Mastitis Prevention for Breastfeeding Women MilkShaker is a fully-automated wearable to prevent mastitis and clogged milk ducts in breastfeeding women.
Third Place ($10,000): SWERV
Austin Riesenberger (Engineering), Cole Ames (Engineering),
Nick Walker (Engineering), Quinn Bergeron (St. Lawrence University)
SWERV is a patent-pending, window-mounted ERV that efficiently cycles fresh air while recovering heat and moisture, improving air quality without increasing energy bills.
The Engineering for Humanity Award ($10,000): Cadre technologies Services LLC
Muneer Khan (Engineering), Sachin S Kameswaran (Engineering), Sunita Tarei (Indian Institute of Technology)
AI-powered glasses empowering the visually impaired. Cadre Tech’s AI Glasses are an innovative assistive technology designed to enhance independence for visually impaired individuals.
Global Policy Challenge, SIPA
The SIPA Annual Global Policy Challenge (the Challenge) is focused on the following themes: (1) Geopolitical Stability; (2) Democratic Resilience; (3) Climate and Sustainable Development; (4) Inclusive Prosperity and Macroeconomics Stability. Each team must have a SIPA student as a founding member.
First Place ($25,000): EnergyOne
Miriam Triassi, Maria Jimena Jurado Giraldo, Riya Yingran Guo, Corentin Donatien, Samuel Dumesh
AI-driven deal broker platform dedicated to facilitating renewable energy investment in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs).
Second Place ($15,000): Palumba
Alexandra Gernath, Katharina Reisenbauer, Pol Villaverde
Youth-oriented digital tool mobilized 170,000+ first-time voters, becoming the most downloaded political app in Europe (#1 in the App Stores).
Third Place ($10,000): Sante
Bruno Kunzler, Mirele Preira Pauelo, Victoria Anna Rentrop (Mailman School of Public Health)
Leverages AI and GIS to predict disease outbreaks by analyzing real-time data, including socio-demographic and environmental factors.
Media Track, Columbia Journalism
The Media Track of the Columbia Venture Challenge is sponsored by the Brown Institute for Media Innovation. Brown is an R&D lab housed in Columbia Journalism School. It supports new technologies for journalism and media production.
First Place ($15,000): Threepio
Lara Ismail (Columbia Business School)
AI-powered dialect-aware subtitling platform.
Second Place ($10,000): The Source Report
Sarah Ryley (Columbia Journalism School)
Investigative news outlet that rates products.
Third Place ($5,000): Viou
Asabe Vincent-Otiono (Columbia Journalism School)
AI-powered visual content marketplace.
The Helen Gurley Brown Foundation Prize
The Helen Gurley Brown (HBG) Foundation Prize provides grants to select Columbia University founders or co-founders whose start up ventures are specifically focused on improving the lives of women and girls around the world (creating new jobs, access and opportunities, health, education, and more).
Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Helen Gurley Brown Prize, and thank you to the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation for making these grants possible!
$25,000: Rightful Hire
Jon Diaz (SIPA), Julio Intriago (Teachers College), Kristina Mincheva (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences), Anna Veldman (SIPA)
Rightful Hire supports women living in temporary housing in New York City, by connecting them with meaningful job opportunities at small and mid-sized U.S. companies through a tailored talent-matching service.
$15,000: Tesoro
Sara Gomez Horta (SIPA)
Tesoro is a wealth management platform connecting Latinas with Certified Financial Planners (CFPs) and investment tools.