Beamlink is a social enterprise dedicated to providing Internet access to individuals in disaster zones and remote areas with limited connectivity. The company has developed portable cell towers that can function off the grid and be deployed in a variety of environments. Utilizing software-defined radio technology and a mesh backhaul, these briefcase-sized towers can operate on any frequency, ensuring reliable Internet service even in the most challenging conditions. By focusing on last-mile populations, Beamlink aims to bridge the digital divide and enhance communication capabilities in underserved regions.
Western Kentucky University
Grant in 2023
Western Kentucky University, off of College Heights Blvd in Bowling Green, has over 170 amazing undergraduate and 50 graduate school fields of study to choose from. Some of the many interesting offerings at WKU include advertising, dental hygiene, early childhood education, economics, graphic design, health care administration, nursing, paralegal studies, performing arts, women’s studies, zoology, and more. For the quintessential college experience, look no further than the amazing campus facilities and events of WKU. The Hilltoppers’ football team was recently promoted to Division 1-A, allowing them to compete for national bowls and titles. Western Kentucky University also has international appeal with study-abroad programs and the Chinese Flagship program, which integrates the learning of the Chinese language into a student’s education for those interested in international careers. Financial aid is available to eligible students at WKU the form of grants, student employment, loans, veterans’ benefits, tuition waivers, and scholarships. The school itself offers academic scholarships, alumni grants, departmental scholarships and Kentucky state assistance. Job fairs and employment preparation seminars aren’t the only career services you can expect from the career center. Employers often post job leads on the website board, exclusive to WKU students. Internships are also available to students looking to gain work experience in their fields of choice.
OneSeventeen Media
Grant in 2022
OneSeventeen Media, Inc. is a company focused on developing social media tools aimed at promoting the well-being of children aged 10 to 14. Based in Austin, Texas, the company offers a range of services, including MyMobileMentor, a digital first responder that equips kids with essential skills to navigate challenging situations during their teenage years. Additionally, OneSeventeen Media has created reThinkIt!, a telebehavioral mental health platform that utilizes live chat and chatbot assistants to help children process difficult emotions and understand their behaviors. The company also provides an integrated real-time behavior management system for schools, supporting both parents and educational institutions in addressing complex issues related to children's social-emotional health with evidence-based and personalized content. Since its incorporation in 2008, OneSeventeen Media has aimed to empower young individuals to make informed decisions in various environments, including school and home.
CyberSpara is a cybersecurity company focused on educating individuals and enterprises about online privacy and security vulnerabilities. Through a simulation-based educational model that incorporates gamification principles, it aims to enhance awareness of common risks associated with social media platforms. The company's Digital-PASS is designed to empower users to effectively mitigate security threats encountered on the Internet. Additionally, CyberSpara provides a platform that assists organizations in identifying vulnerabilities, safeguarding sensitive data from cyberattacks, and facilitating the migration to secure cloud environments. By offering these services, CyberSpara enables both individuals and businesses to prevent cyber threats efficiently and enhance their overall security posture.
Beamlink is a social enterprise dedicated to providing Internet access to individuals in disaster zones and remote areas with limited connectivity. The company has developed portable cell towers that can function off the grid and be deployed in a variety of environments. Utilizing software-defined radio technology and a mesh backhaul, these briefcase-sized towers can operate on any frequency, ensuring reliable Internet service even in the most challenging conditions. By focusing on last-mile populations, Beamlink aims to bridge the digital divide and enhance communication capabilities in underserved regions.
HeyKiddo offers a suite of technology-driven tools aimed at supporting the mental, social, and emotional health of children. The company provides two primary products: the HeyKiddo™ App, which assists parents in anticipating, detecting, addressing, and preventing mental and emotional challenges their children may face, and HeyKiddo™ Huddle, a comprehensive social-emotional learning curriculum designed for educators and homeschooling parents. Developed with input from psychologists, these tools are intended to help parents and teachers cultivate essential leadership, social, and emotional skills in children, fostering their overall development both at home and in educational settings.
DrivenData
Seed Round in 2021
DrivenData focuses on leveraging data science and crowdsourcing to address significant social challenges. The company organizes online challenges, typically lasting 2-3 months, where a global community of data scientists competes to develop effective statistical models for complex predictive problems. In addition to these competitions, DrivenData offers services that include comprehensive data assessment, predictive modeling, statistical analysis, and rapid development and prototyping. By connecting mission-driven organizations with skilled data scientists, DrivenData aims to empower these organizations to make impactful decisions based on their data.
Meedan is a hybrid social technology enterprise focused on enhancing cross-language interaction on the web, particularly through social media verification and translation tools. The company offers Checkdesk, a product designed for newsrooms to facilitate collaboration with citizen journalists for fact-checking and verifying media during breaking events. Additionally, Meedan provides Bridge, a platform that specializes in social media translation. By developing open-source tools for content creation and sharing, Meedan aims to improve journalism, digital literacy, and the accessibility of information both online and offline, ultimately making information access more equitable.
Hawaii Integrated Analytics
Grant in 2020
Hawaii Integrated Analytics, founded in 2018 and based in Honolulu, Hawaii, specializes in data research services focused on evaluating socioeconomic projects. The company provides a comprehensive suite of services, including protocol design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and data storage. By measuring the social, economic, and health impacts of various programs, Hawaii Integrated Analytics enables non-profit organizations and businesses to assess the effectiveness of their initiatives, even those not explicitly aimed at these outcomes.
Steg AI specializes in media protection and authentication through its AI-driven tools. Founded in 2019 and based in New York, the company provides solutions that empower clients to identify and manage images and videos uploaded to their platforms, even when these media have been captured from broadcasts using smartphones. This capability surpasses the limitations of traditional content attribution tools. Steg AI's technology enables social media platforms to comply with copyright laws, safeguard proprietary content, and generate new revenue streams. Additionally, the company helps media distributors understand content provenance, manage synthetic media responsibly, and combat the spread of misinformation, thereby fostering user trust in their platforms.
AuCoDe aims to be the Google Alerts of controversies and crisis situations. By automatically analyzing social media and digital news streams using sophisticated machine learning techniques, they provide early detection of controversies and crisis situations. Their cutting-edge technology rapidly detects or predicts crisis situations, so their quantities trading customers can use these insights directly for complex trading strategies and beat their competition to the best trades.
Spotery is an online booking platform that facilitates connections between users and non-traditional landlords, allowing them to market underused spaces for everyday activities. The platform offers features such as membership certification and revenue management, which help landlords optimize the use of their properties. By personalizing social networking options, Spotery enhances community engagement, enabling clients to easily find suitable locations for various needs. Through its marketplace, Spotery aims to energize relationships within communities by promoting the utilization of available facilities.
Affectifi is a psycho-educational company that offers social and emotional technology and training services to institutions and individuals, including EQ certification. The company is based in Brooklyn, New York.
Chef Koochooloo
Pre Seed Round in 2019
Chef Koochooloo is an educational company that offers a unique platform combining cooking with learning to teach children essential skills in math, science, and global awareness. The program integrates culinary activities with academic lessons, allowing students to explore different cultures through cooking while aligning with various educational standards, including Common Core and NGSS. Chef Koochooloo features a range of products, such as a TV show, a kid-friendly cookbook, and an interactive app that guides students through recipes while reinforcing relevant concepts in math, geography, and science tailored to their grade levels. The company’s mission focuses on engaging kids and educators in healthy, collaborative cooking experiences enriched with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) principles. With a team of nutritionists, chefs, curriculum specialists, and game designers, Chef Koochooloo aims to provide adaptable educational enrichment programs for the classroom and beyond.
Centervention
Grant in 2019
Centervention specializes in developing game-based online programs aimed at enhancing social and emotional skills for elementary and middle school students. These interactive games not only engage students but also automatically collect data, allowing educators to monitor individual progress effectively. The programs include supplemental lessons that reinforce the learning experience, catering to the unique needs of each student. Centervention also features an intelligent social tutoring system that assesses behavioral readiness, creating personalized avatars for children. These avatars guide students through a series of simulated social scenarios, enabling them to practice and improve their social and emotional competencies in a fun and effective manner.
AuCoDe aims to be the Google Alerts of controversies and crisis situations. By automatically analyzing social media and digital news streams using sophisticated machine learning techniques, they provide early detection of controversies and crisis situations. Their cutting-edge technology rapidly detects or predicts crisis situations, so their quantities trading customers can use these insights directly for complex trading strategies and beat their competition to the best trades.
Centervention
Grant in 2017
Centervention specializes in developing game-based online programs aimed at enhancing social and emotional skills for elementary and middle school students. These interactive games not only engage students but also automatically collect data, allowing educators to monitor individual progress effectively. The programs include supplemental lessons that reinforce the learning experience, catering to the unique needs of each student. Centervention also features an intelligent social tutoring system that assesses behavioral readiness, creating personalized avatars for children. These avatars guide students through a series of simulated social scenarios, enabling them to practice and improve their social and emotional competencies in a fun and effective manner.
Chef Koochooloo
Grant in 2017
Chef Koochooloo is an educational company that offers a unique platform combining cooking with learning to teach children essential skills in math, science, and global awareness. The program integrates culinary activities with academic lessons, allowing students to explore different cultures through cooking while aligning with various educational standards, including Common Core and NGSS. Chef Koochooloo features a range of products, such as a TV show, a kid-friendly cookbook, and an interactive app that guides students through recipes while reinforcing relevant concepts in math, geography, and science tailored to their grade levels. The company’s mission focuses on engaging kids and educators in healthy, collaborative cooking experiences enriched with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) principles. With a team of nutritionists, chefs, curriculum specialists, and game designers, Chef Koochooloo aims to provide adaptable educational enrichment programs for the classroom and beyond.
Strange Loop Games
Grant in 2016
Strange Loop Games is a gaming studio focused on developing educational multiplayer games that engage users in saving virtual ecosystems. Through its innovative approach, the company aims to teach children the importance of community and environmental conservation. Additionally, Strange Loop Games is building a metaverse network of gaming worlds that are owned and governed by their players, fostering a sense of ownership and collaboration within the gaming experience.
SiLAS specializes in providing social, emotional, and behavioral solutions aimed at practitioners and students, particularly those on the autism spectrum. The company offers a comprehensive program that includes social-emotional learning (SEL) screenings and curricula for various age groups, in addition to curricula focused on applied behavior analysis (ABA), executive functioning, and transitional and vocational skills. SiLAS also features a data-driven animation platform designed to assist children in recognizing facial expressions, enhancing language abilities, and improving social interactions. This platform encompasses three tiers of social skills and vocational training, while allowing educators to track student performance metrics associated with individual animation projects. By enabling children to collaborate on creating animation scripts, the platform promotes essential skills such as topic generation, eye contact, and appropriate social responses.
Diesel Labs, Inc. is a mobile video analytics company based in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 2016. It specializes in helping marketers convert television ad campaigns into targeted mobile video campaigns by utilizing proprietary technology. Diesel Labs measures audience attention across various entertainment platforms, including social media channels like Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. By analyzing engagement data from millions of viewers, the company provides insights that assist media companies in making informed decisions regarding content creation, distribution, and success measurement. Its services streamline cross-channel media planning, enabling clients to efficiently develop mobile campaigns and enhance audience engagement and subscribership without the need for extensive resource allocation.
Children and Parent Resource Group
Grant in 2016
Children and Parent Resource develops and provides small group classes, seminars, and coaching for families through the family life education project. Through the life changing experiences community education project, they provide youth intervention and prevention programs on critical health and social topics to schools. They provide programs for marriage and family training programs and youth development intervention and prevention programs.
AdHusky, founded in 2012 and based in San Francisco, California, specializes in automated advertising solutions on Facebook, particularly for financial service firms and small businesses. The company allows advertisers to create customized advertisements and run targeted campaigns to effectively reach their desired audiences. AdHusky's platform offers tailored templates that align with specific business needs and refines target markets based on location. It also manages the bidding and advertisement launch processes, streamlining social marketing efforts. By focusing on these services, AdHusky helps small businesses engage with their customers more efficiently through social networking platforms.
Anchovi Labs
Grant in 2012
Anchovi Labs is developing a new way to organize, browse and share your personal photos.
Synoptos
Angel Round in 2011
Synoptos specializes in delivering targeted business intelligence solutions for high-profile organizations and campaigns through advanced news and social media monitoring, media analysis, and influencer identification. The company employs proprietary technologies and algorithms, developed with support from the National Science Foundation and Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, alongside rigorous human data analysis methodologies. This combination allows Synoptos to assist clients in leveraging digital media for intelligence gathering, optimizing business operations, measuring performance, and enhancing decision-making. Its diverse clientele includes Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, trade associations, political officials, media outlets, lobbying firms, non-profits, and NGOs, all benefiting from Synoptos' comprehensive understanding of the media landscape and information flow.
Bluefin Labs
Grant in 2008
Bluefin Labs is a social TV analytics company that specializes in connecting social media commentary to television shows and commercials. Founded in 2008 and based in Cambridge, MA, with an additional office in New York, NY, the company leverages technology and professional services to provide brand advertisers, advertising agencies, and TV networks with insights drawn from extensive data analysis. This approach allows clients to understand audience engagement and sentiment related to their broadcasts. Grounded in 15 years of cognitive science and machine learning research from the MIT Media Lab, Bluefin Labs was acquired by Twitter in 2013.