Business Pitch Competition Showcases Two Dozen Start-Ups
In just two minutes, each of the 24 most promising start-up founders from Santa Clara University – alumni, faculty, and graduate students – took the stage during Demo Day, hosted by the Ciocca Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Leavey School of Business, to showcase their innovations to hundreds of investors, industry leaders, and fellow entrepreneurs. As reward for their efforts, this group from the Ciocca Center’s 2023 Bronco Venture Accelerator, received valuable feedback from and exposure to the Santa Clara community as well as to investors, entrepreneurs, and industry experts.
“We’re in the global heart of innovation in the world, and we have the most smart, innovative, and creative students, and they care about the world. You can’t have a better mixture,” remarked Santa Clara University President Julie Sullivan at this year’s event. “Some of our students are here today to see the ventures and enterprises that our alumni founded and to see the support they are receiving from the University. They know they are lifelong Broncos and opportunities like these are in their future.”
Covering a wide range of innovative business ideas and products, participants included ventures such as Biotmotum, which created a robotic ankle assistant to improve mobility; Dropshop, an app that acts like “Grubhub” for retail purchases; NEHXT, an app that provides at-home beauty services; and Vydar Medical, Inc., maker of smart tech wearables to improve clinical outcomes.
Leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) was a popular theme for participating companies this year, including Edily, a learning solutions company harnessing the power of AI; EVT, a company that leverages AI to transform videos recordings into accessible and engaging content for online learning; Indicia which uses AI to provide real-time crypto investing insights; and Mana Burn, a free-to-play, mobile role playing game powered by AI. Other firms are seeking to bring innovations to the sustainability market, including Juice Serve, which provides an app to expedite the electronic vehicle charging process; Planted Materials, which has developed scalable processes to supply renewable materials and chemicals at scale; and Argyle Earth, which aims to improve energy efficiency and affordability by converting low-temperature waste heat into electricity.
Since this summer, 27 companies have been participating in this year’s Bronco Venture Accelerator during which they worked on their business and received the guidance of mentors, most of whom are Santa Clara alumni. Their enterprises cover AI, consumer products and services, cybersecurity, edtech/career, energy, fashion, finance, gaming, med/health, and physical security. Of the 27 entrepreneurs, 20 are alumni, one is faculty member, two are graduate students, and four represent other categories.
Their businesses are in different stages: three recently launched; five are conducting market research; six are in beta testing; 14 are in product development, and nine are already generating revenue. And, three are currently VC funded.
As part of the Demo Day celebration, U.S. Congressman Ro Khanna, CA-17, presented two U.S. Congressional Certificates of Special Recognition to the Bronco Ventures Accelerator and the Ciocca Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the “dedicated steadfast efforts of staff and faculty to foster, support, and promote the innovation and ingenuity of Santa Clara alumni in venture capital.” Khanna presented the certificates to President Sullivan, Cicco Center Executive Director Chris Norris, and Director of Bronco Ventures Morgan Slain.
“With such energy and vision, you are tackling the most complex issues of climate of AI, cybersecurity, the things that are actually going to move humanity forward,” Said Khanna.
Guests also heard from Bronco Entrepreneur of the Year, Jim Dukhovny, founder of Alef Aeronautics, which is designing and developing the world’s first real flying car.
“With our location in Silicon Valley, we attract students who are either entrepreneurs themselves or they want to learn how to be entrepreneurial in ways that will be beneficial to their careers and to our world,” said Ed Grier, Dean of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. “Demo Day gives our students the opportunity to talk with and learn from our alumni. It’s a program that benefits our alumni business founders and our students.”