Build and Launch Accelerator Accepts 15 Teams for the 2024 Summer Program

The Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation today announced the 15 startups selected to participate in the 2024 Polsky Accelerators, 10-week summer programs open to all University of Chicago students and recent alumni.

Teams selected this year represent a variety of units from across UChicago including the College, Harris School of Public Policy, Chicago Booth School of Business, and alumni.

Nine teams were accepted into the Build track of the accelerator, designed for early-stage ventures. In this track, students spend their summer building the key elements of their venture and validating assumptions around their market or customers. Each Build team also receives a $7,000 non-dilutive grant.

The other six teams were accepted into the Launch track of the accelerator, designed for investment-ready teams to focus on fundraising, selling, and gaining and maintaining momentum. It includes a $10,000 investment in the business, networking opportunities with venture capitalists, and assistance in building pitch and fundraising decks.

All teams accepted receive funding including more than $100,000 in in-kind services such as web hosting and incorporation help, coaching from Polsky Center staff, mentorship from alumni entrepreneurs and Chicago-area investors, and weekly programming designed to help them overcome many of the hurdles to launching a business. 

The teams selected for the Build and Launch tracks of the 2024 Polsky Accelerator are:

BUILD ACCELERATOR

Exactics // Exactics is a biotechnology company focused on rapid diagnostics, specifically aiming to expedite treatment processes for many deadly and debilitating infectious diseases, including Lyme disease, through their proprietary testing platform. Through the use of rapid, reliable, and affordable diagnostics, Exactics aims to reduce the health and economic burden of these diseases by identifying them in their early stage, before irreversible damage occurs. The company was founded by four undergraduate students at the University of Chicago.

GameGain // GameGain is democratizing sports ownership by connecting fans and retail investors to sports equity opportunities. It empowers anyone to invest in what they love.

InsightEd // InsightEd helps schools understand and support their students’ mental health by providing targeted assessments and proven solutions, building healthier communities that cultivate student success.

Scout // The current data economy is broken—poor quality data is being scraped without permission or understanding of data provenance, quality, and rights of use. Our data-fingerprinting software automatically captures, tracks, and embeds the permission, source, and context behind the data—adding new guardrails to data-flow. Scout is building the infrastructure for the safe, efficient commercialization of data—limiting liability, and increasing quality—to fuel training of next-gen AI/ML.

Rayni // Using scientific instruments is essential to the world of research. However, operating them is an extremely cumbersome process, leading to very expensive mistakes. Rayni’s AI copilot helps researchers use their instruments like experts, saving months of time and thousands of dollars while enabling groundbreaking discoveries!

Zenara // Zenara Health is building a community centered around holistic health and wellness. Our first product, the Zenara Health marketplace, is a digital health platform enabling patients and referring clinicians to discover and book appointments with high-quality, integrative healthcare providers in their area.

BioPack // BioPack will manufacture and sell high-performance biodegradable packaging to replace the use of non-degradable polyethylene-based plastics for single-use packaging. The technology uses a patent-pending starch and chitosan composite developed in our faculty advisor’s UChicago lab, and addresses the ongoing problem of plastic pollution.

AlgoRHYTHM // AlgoRHYTHM makes learning short dances accessible and enjoyable, especially for beginners. Using an AI-driven feedback system, it offers an engaging, game-like experience that helps users improve their skills. Users can also upload their own dance videos and share their journey, making AlgoRHYTHM a unique social platform for dance enthusiasts to connect and grow together.

Carob // Carob is a social investment platform that allows users to link their personal investment accounts and participate in private and public groups with family, friends, and other users. Through the platform, users can view each other’s portfolio holdings on a percentage basis and gain peer-based investment insights.

LAUNCH ACCELERATOR

Enlight Education // Enlight is a dual-platform educational venture designed to bridge the digital divide in underserved regions. By offering a physical device that broadcasts interactive learning content offline and a complementary online platform, Enlight provides high-quality educational resources to students regardless of their internet connectivity or financial background.

KindEd // KindEd is a nonprofit organization that provides a non-digital social media education curriculum designed to develop high agency and positive social media use among children. It equips and empower younger generations with the knowledge, self awareness, and critical thinking skills to navigate the digital world responsibly and safely. KindEd also provides professional development and instructional support services to partner collaboratively with our schools, sharing ownership on the path to student success.

Theta Neurotech // Via its skin-like EEG patch and AI algorithm, Theta Neurotech alerts people with epilepsy of an impending seizure 30-60 minutes before it occurs. This enables targeted medication deployment and hospitalization reduction for the nearly 70 million people living with epilepsy.

Tsay Tea // A Taiwanese-American tea company bringing Taiwanese loose leaf teas to American audiences. It works directly with family-owned-and-operated farms to ensure quality and promote their authentic stories.

bellie // bellie is a prebiotic drink that uses a new super-ingredient to rebuild the microbiome, providing consumers with a tasty way to improve their gut health.

Familial // Familial is a user-friendly and thorough software to help families collaborate on long-term planning and estate organization. From asset organization and personal property collections to household management and crucial conversations, Familial covers a holistic set of topics that often fall through the cracks of estate and financial planning to save families hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars. The platform simplifies complex tasks into manageable steps, all within an easy-to-use, multimedia-forward application. Familial is proud to be recommended by financial advisors, featured on NPR, and supported by the University of Chicago.

To learn more about the Build and Launch Accelerators, contact Paul Cavalieri.