Phase II Teams Selected for the 16th Annual Global New Venture Challenge

From Chicago, Singapore, and London, 19 teams are advancing to Phase II of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation’s 2023 Global New Venture Challenge (GNVC).

The GNVC is the global track of the New Venture Challenge, the University of Chicago’s signature startup accelerator, and supports Chicago Booth Executive MBA students worldwide. More than 80 coaches, judges, panelists, and guest speakers participate in the GNVC each year.

The Phase II teams are:

Chicago Cohort

• GroupCom // GroupCom provides small business owners with personalized solutions and resources for management from start to exit. We will use AI and Blockchain technology to automate the business exit process, with the goal of creating a fully integrated platform connecting small business owners with buyers and investors in a transparent manner.
• InvSync // Our solution is a cloud platform that enables inventory management-as-a-service. The solution provides bidirectional orchestration of inventory management and allows suppliers/distributors to “push inventory” down to buyers based on outside-in demand planning enabled by visibility to their customer’s point-of-sale data.
• JobJedi // An AI career counselor that provides personalized support & guidance to job seekers. It leverages OpenAI’s technology to optimize resumes, and craft cover letters. Offers professional-grade services at a fraction of the cost. Continuously improves through user data. Ideal tool for job seekers to achieve career goals.
• ReGen Cell Therapy // A stem cell company providing cleaning, storage, and regeneration services for humans and animals at price points that will allow people to have access to treatments that are not available today, but will be available in the future. Saving for the cure.
• Soigné Aesthetics // We are developing a new scalable and repeatable business model within the aesthetic injectables market. Our company will only administer neuromodulators (e.g., Botox, Dysport) and dermal fillers (e.g., Juv-derm, Restylane), and establish a well-known, trusted brand with a consistent experience across all national locations. This has never been done!
• South Pine Wealth Management // Our wealth management advisory is tailored for families immigrating to the US with established careers and businesses. Our solution provides sophisticated advisory at an affordable price. We enable that by a software platform with artificial intelligence solutions based on investment theories from the University of Chicago and grow with our clients.
• Viceroy // Whether you are working on your next big idea, managing a household, or wanting to live life to the fullest, time is your most precious resource. Viceroy is a platform-enabled service provider matching busy professionals with best-in-class life assistants. Viceroy has a mission to make a profound impact on busy lives.
• VolunPair // A digital network platform matching volunteers, non-profit organizations, and corporations to foster high-value social engagements in communities. VolunPair leverages private-sector corporate social responsibility goals, making volunteering and donating easy, effective, and rewarding for all.

Singapore Cohort

• Apricott // Apricott democratizes the content creation market by supplying business owners with content providers on-demand and empowering the providers with AI-based tools to create more with less. Via Apricott, users connect with content providers to streamline a full production service from planning to distribution of contents with scalability, affordability, and quality.
• JOY DIMSUM // JOY DIMSUM Offers an alternative solution for a healthier Chinese fast food (Canton Dimsum). JOY DIMSUM’s food sold is not fancy but it offers a fast and cost-effective option to customers. Our vision is to make a fast-food chain store as another ‘Chinese McDonald’.
• Punctum // Punctum is an AI-powered productivity platform that saves time and effort in creating presentation decks by automating tasks. The platform generates content and formats decks based on user inputs and information from the web utilizing the same large language model behind ChatGPT.
• Talent Spark // Talent Spark couples an intuitive user experience with AI to help HR departments improve time to hire and cost savings, by placing the right candidate in the right role while eliminating risk of hiring bias. Through the platform, we will facilitate candidate discovery, interview scheduling, and employment benefits and compliance.

London Cohort

• Aladdin Software // Aladdin Software is a cross-border commerce platform. Its platform enables buyers and sellers to transact with each other in a convenient, transparent, and cost-effective way. It helps buyers access products directly from manufacturers abroad (fewer intermediaries) and provides small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access to the global market.
• Atomium // This project aims to develop and commercialize a new type of menstrual cups that significantly improve women’s comfort through a revamped design and a new user experience: insert it and remove it like a tampon.
• Foxlove Strategy (Part of Fuchs Strategic Relationships Ltd., Registered in England, UK) // Foxlove Strategy is a Channel Advisory – more precisely, we are an End-2-End Technology Partnership Advisory Firm. We add value to our customers’ top line by creating strategic partnerships with Cloud Providers focused on relationships, awareness and visibility to increase demand generation.
• Go Through // The business will offer an adapted, technologically equipped space that provides audio and visual effects to patients/visitors right before or after therapeutic sessions.
• Kledit // The AI/ML platform we are building will use traditional data sources from the banks e.g. customer borrowing and repayment information and along with alternative data sources such as utility payments, mobile money transaction, to assess the creditworthiness of individuals even when they have very little credit history.
• Project X // Project X is a mission to impact our most valuable resource. Children. A physical and mental progressive childhood developmental tool designed to enhance learning, create positive habits, and build confidence and resilience for better life outcomes, reducing the likelihood of health problems in adolescence and adulthood.

The GNVC is structured to meet the unique schedule needs of Chicago Booth executive MBA students. Since Chicago Booth has three global campuses — Chicago, London, and Hong Kong — each campus hosts its own semi-finals event. The top teams across all campuses are invited to participate in the global finals, which are held in Chicago during the Executive MBA graduation week.