Duke I&E Network in the News

• Colossal Biosciences raised $200M to bring back the woolly mammoth. (Co-founder Andrew Busey ’93)

• Vensana Capital closed a $425M fund to back breakthrough medical technology companies. (Managing Partner Justin Klein '99, MD '04)

• Tune Therapeutics raised more than $175M in Series B financing to advance field-leading epigenome editing programs. (Co-founder Charles Gersbach, John W. Strohbehn Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering)

• Baton, a marketplace to help small and medium-sized businesses find buyers, raised $10M in Series A financing. (Co-founder and CEO Chat Joglekar MBA ’04)

• This year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list featured many Duke founders:

  • Co-founder Elle Smyth BSE ’20: RetailReady, supply chain software startup that helps companies automate retail compliance and correct shipping violations

  • Co-founders Jared Golestani ’17 and Breanna Golestani ’16): Kokada, a coconut spread sold in Wegmans and other grocery stores nationwide

  • Founder Hazel Horvath ’20: Ecolytics, a software platform enabling companies to build data-driven sustainability programs

  • Founder Uzoma Ayogu BSE ’17: Releaf Earth, a climate tech startup that leverages biochar for carbon removal

  • Co-founder Arjun Desai BSE ’18: Cartesia AI, specializing in more efficient AI that can be processed while offline

  • Co-founder Rob Baldoni BSE ‘21, ME ‘22: Dannce.Ai, which uses video-based deep learning software to analyze movement

  • Founder Brent Comstock ’17: BCom, an advertising and media agency focused on social causes and advocacy clients

• Inc Magazine featured Tricia Taitt MBA '06, founder and CEO of fractional CFO and accounting business FinCore.

• The News & Observer covered the selection of the Triangle by Plaid, whose data transfer network powers fintech and digital finance products, for its new hub office, with hiring starting this year. (Co-founder and CEO Zachary Perret ’10)

• Triangle Business Journal featured the launch of new fashion brand Worldclass Clothing, started to destigmatize colon cancer screenings. (Co-founder Brooks Bell ’02)

• Net Influencer featured creator management firm Greenlight Group. (Co-founder & Managing Partner Doug Landers ’23)

• Inc. Magazine recognized Silencer Central, a firearm sound suppressor retailer, as one of America’s fastest growing private companies. (Founder and CEO Brandon Maddox MBA '03) 

• Worth Magazine recognized Lori Cashman '94, General Partner at Visible Ventures, as one of 100 individuals driving meaningful change and making a significant impact in the world.

• Bridge, which is building critical infrastructure to support stablecoin payments, was acquired by fintech giant Stripe for $1.1 billion, making it the most valuable deal in the cryptocurrency industry to date. (Co-founder and CEO Zach Abrams ’07)

• Creator marketplace startup Agentio, which has built an automated platform for YouTubers to sell their ad slots to brands, has raised $12 million in Series A funding. (CEO and co-founder Arthur Leopold ’12)

• Protect3D, which makes custom athletic gear to reduce injury and speed recovery, has received a $1.3 million grant from the Department of Defense to explore ways to use their technology to help soldiers in the field. (Co-founders CEO Kevin Gehsmann BSE ’19, CTO Tim Skapek BSE ’20, and CSO Clark Bulleit BSE ’19, MD ’25)

• Cydoc won an NC IDEA SEED grant to support its work bringing AI into healthcare through the first AI-native electronic health record (EHR) and virtual health system. (Founder and CEO Rachel Draelos MS '19, MD '22, PhD '22)

• Katherine Butler-Dines MBA '23 announced the acquisition of Affinity Travel via a self-funded search. 

• The Chronicle covered Duke professor Nimmi Ramanujam P’27, who won the Department of Defense’s 2024 Innovator Award, securing $10.4 million for research seeking to improve breast cancer treatments and enable patients to be treated in just one session.

• Duke Today profiled Duke researchers Shyni Varghese and Hunter Newman MS '22, PhD '23, who teamed up to develop and bring to market a substance that can be injected into a fractured bone to help it heal more quickly. 

• Duke Centennial Oral Histories shared an interview with Duke trustee and entrepreneurial capitalist Carmichael Roberts ’90, PhD ’95.

• The Chronicle covered how students in the Duke Creator Lab are using social medial to share the Duke experience with prospective students and parents.

• Infinity Ventures closed on $184 million in new capital for fintech and commerce investments (cofounder and managing partner Jay Ganatra ’07).

• ScriptScouts, a search engine for prescription drug discounts, was acquired by Aphora Health (cofounder and Chief Product Officer Andy Chan MBA ’20).

• Infactory, an AI fact-checking search engine, has raised $4 million at a $25 million valuation (cofounder and CEO Brooke Hartley Moy ’11, MBA ’20).

• Protect3D was featured on Good Morning Arizona after supporting Phoenix Suns players with custom athletic gear (cofounded by CEO Kevin Gehsmann BSE ’19, CTO Tim Skapek BSE ’20, and CSO Clark Bulleit BSE ’19, MD ’25).

• Theralinq, which supports holistic approaches to children’s health early interventions, was named a Top 10 startup to watch by the North Carolina Technology Association (cofounder and CEO Brennan Barber MBA ’20).

• The Chronicle profiled Sarthak Dhawan ’27 and his startup TurboLearn AI, which supports AI summaries, flashcards, quizzes, and study guides.

• Duke I&E’s Director of Research, Manuel Adelino, was recognized by Poets & Quants as a favorite professor of the MBA Class of 2024.

• Gradient Health, which provides pathology imaging to accelerate AI development, acquired DataAppraisal (cofounder and CEO Josh Miller BSE ’15).

• Thatch, which helps businesses give their employees tailored options for healthcare, raised a $38 million Series A. (co-founder and CEO Chris Ellis ’14)

• Nonprofit fundraising platform Bonterra announced its acquisition of DonorDrive, adding peer-to-peer fundraising capabilities to its existing suite of products. (CEO Scott Brighton MBA ’93)

• Members of Duke’s entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) community have had recent wins:

  • Nathan Schwartzbauer MBA/MPP ’24 announced a self-funded ETA search (he also wrote about how his post-U.S. Army MBA journey led him to ETA).

  • Chris Thompson MBA ’20 was accepted to the Search Fund Accelerator 2024 cohort.

  • Caleb Tucker MBA ’23 acquired a concrete finishing business, StampItCrete, via self-funded search.

• Inc. Magazine spotlighted The Woobles, which has taught half a million people to crochet, in its Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. (co-founders Justine Tiu BSE ’11 and Adrian Zhang BSE ’11)

• Fuqua Associate Professor Dan Gross was quoted in a Bloomberg piece about the economics of ramping down global emissions to meet critical climate goals.

• QuantumBloom, which cultivates diverse female talent in STEM, was named Most Impactful Initiative by WOMEN IN TECH Global. (co-founder and COO Andrea Mohamed MBA ’08)

• Elyse Burns JD ’22 was profiled in Triangle Business Journal for her company Elyse Breanne Design.

• GrepBeat’s Startups to Watch selected two Duke-affiliated ventures as some of the most promising early-stage startups in the Triangle:

• RepVue, which empowers sales professionals to better assess organizations and work opportunities. (VP of Business Development Jordan Weinstein ’98, MBA ’06)

• Keebler Health, which uses AI to make effective risk adjustment more feasible for healthcare providers. (CEO Isaac Park ’05)

• Private equity firm Topspin Consumer Partners announced its acquisition of sweat control brand Carpe, co-founded by Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs alumnus Kasper Kubica ’17, for an undisclosed sum.

• Cameyo (COO Shane Harris MBA ’18), which developed virtualization tools to run Windows apps on ChromeOS devices, was acquired by Google for an undisclosed sum.

• Lindy Biosciences, a biotech company specializing in innovative drug formulation and delivery technologies, announced an exclusive licensing agreement and strategic collaboration with Novartis Pharma AG, with Lindy Bio receiving $20 million up front and eligible for $934 million. (Deborah Bitterfield PhD ’11, founder and CEO.)

• Restor3d, the leader in 3D-printed personalized orthopedic implants, announced the successful closing of a $70 million financing round. (Professor Ken Gall, co-founder, and Cambre Kelly PhD ’20, co-founder.)

• Levitate, an AI-powered relationship marketing firm, announced $15 million in Series D funding and lit up the Nasdaq Tower. (Jesse Lipson ’99, founder and CEO.)

• Allstacks, a software engineering intelligence platform that enhances software development outcomes, announced $10 million in Series A funding. (Hersh Tapadia MS ’10, co-founder and CEO.)

• RetailReady, an AI warehouse app that digitizes packing manuals and instructions, raised $3.3 million. (Elle Smyth BSE’20, co-founder.)

• Aaron Schumm MBA ’07 was named Ernst & Young’s NY Entrepreneur of the Year for his leadership of Vestwell, a retirement and savings platform. For the third year in a row, Vestwell was also selected for the Inc. Magazine #Inc5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America.

• Nathaniel Hill ’12, founder and president of Broadway Plus, which connects audiences to Broadway, won a Tony for producing “Appropriate” (Best Revival of a Play).

• Forbes featured SwiftAlert, a free, fan-run app created by Kyle Mumma ’13, MBA ’18 that allows Taylor Swift fans to tune into livestreams of her concerts.

• Newsweek featured an op-ed by Andrea Mohamed MBA ’08, co-founder and COO of QuantumBloom, which cultivates diverse female talent in STEM.

• Triangle Business Journal featured Sue Harnett ’90, MHA ‘92, founder and CEO of Rewriting the Code, which supports young women in tech.

• Dayo Adesanya MBA ’23 was recognized by Top 100 Innovators & Entrepreneurs for his work as founder of Lead54, which nurtures leadership excellence among the 54 nations of Africa.

• Hypepotamus featured impact investor Charles Robinson ’08 for his work deploying $2 million to revitalize a historic neighborhood in Durham.

• GrepBeat features include: Dhruv Bindra ’25 and Rahul Bhandari ’26, co-founders of Styl, an AI-powered “Tinder for clothes” app and Victoria Nneji MEM ‘15, MS ‘19, PhD ’19, founder and CEO of AKALAKA, which provides tech-based support and resources for caregivers.

• Front Porch Venture Partners, founded by Joe Mancini MBA ‘12, Nikin Shah MBA ‘12, and Gregg Bordes MBA ‘12 successfully closed its $20 million Fund II.

• CoreWeave announced a $1.1B Series C round led by Coatue. Nitin Agrawal MBA ‘07 is Chief Financial Officer.

• Scheduler AI, founded by Mike Bell BSE ‘11 and Maddie Burke Bell ‘11, raised $2.8 million in seed funding led by Drive Capital.

• Crimson Scientific, founded by Michael Cetta BSE ‘90 P ’23, took home the $10,000 second-place prize at the MIT100k2024 Launch competition.

• Elle Smyth BSE ‘20 secured $3 million in seed funding for her startup RetailReady.

• GrantScout, co-founded by Felicia Chen ‘20, secured $3.4 million in seed funding.

• The Duke Entrepreneurial Leaders Network (ELN) announced its 2024 cohort of students and alumni who are committed to founding or leading innovation-driven startups.

• eBoxchain, co-founded by Suraj Chanda MBA ‘18 and Venkataraman Palabindala MBA ‘19 joined the Primordial community.

• NatureDots was presented by co-founder and director Snehal Verma MEM ‘23 at the OneEarthSummit in Hong Kong.

• Jobz has been launched by Tal Huss MBA ‘15.

• Fleet Collision Services has been acquired by Adam Thompson MBA '21 in a self-funded ETA transaction. Adam will serve as President and Owner of the company.

• Biospace announced that STAAR Surgical has named Nancy Sabin BSE ‘92 as Chief Marketing Officer.

• Ernst & Young LLP named Aaron Schumm MBA ‘07 as one of 44 finalists for the Entrepreneur of the Year New York Award.

• Poets and Quants recognized Arya Diwase MPP/MBA ’23, founder of Himayat, among the Best and Brightest.

• GrepBeat featured Bern and its co-founders Avihan Jain ‘27 and Conner Aldrich ‘27.

• Grow Therapy, co-founded by Manoj Kanagaraj ‘16 and Jake Cooper ‘16, secured an $88 million Series C investment led by Sequoia Capital to advance its measurement-informed care infrastructure and improve accessibility to high-quality mental healthcare.
• Circ, a Certified B Corp co-founded by Peter Majeranowski MBA ‘09 and Iulian Bobe MBA ‘09, has been named as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024 in fashion. Pioneering technology to recycle poly-cotton blended fabrics, Circ partners with global fashion brands, leveraging $72 million in funding to scale rapidly and aims to become the largest U.S. player in textile recycling by 2030.
• Real - Sports, a game watching/tracking app founded by John Antonelli ‘23, recently reached 1 million total members.
• Biena Snacks, founded by Poorvi Patodia MBA ‘05, has placed their Tasty Thins product in Costco Wholesale clubs.
• NCIDEA has named Nikhil Mittal MBA ‘25 and Michele Riva MBA ‘25 as Startup Analyst Fellows and Hans Grohs MBA ‘25 and Kelsey Worsham MBA ‘25 as Summer Business Consultant Fellows.
• Josh Seidenfeld MEM/MBA ‘15’s app Messier is now available through the App Store and Google Play. Messier aims to enhance joy, connection, and mental health through personalized prompts developed with leading creativity researchers.
• Education startup Upswing, founded by Melvin Hines JD ‘09, MBA ‘11, was recently recognized by TIME as one of the World’s Top EdTech Companies of 2024.
• Kokada, founded by Breanna (Atkinson) Golestani ‘16 and Jared Golestani ‘17 was named to Wharton Magazine’s Spring/Summer Watch List and their Brownie Kokada Dunks were featured in Good Housekeeping as a 2024 Best Snack award winner in the Kids & Infants category.
• Diego Silva MBA '23 and his company Latam Vet were featured in Chilean business newspaper Diario Financiero.
• GrepBeat featured founders Adam Kershner BSE ‘18 and Jonathan Gans BSE ‘18, sharing how their entrepreneurial journey kicked off as first-year students at Duke and led them to design digital content creator tool Kahana.
• Fortune featured Faire CFO, Lauren Cooks Levitan ‘87, P‘20, P’24, who shared her tips on storytelling and empowering staff with financial literacy at the billion-dollar online wholesale marketplace.

• Taylor Mattingly MBA ’20 launched a search fund, Alenda Partners, which is backed by WSC and Anacapa Partners, among other leading traditional search investors.  

• Fast Company featured Circ, led by CEO and President Peter Majeranowski MBA ‘09, on its list of Most Innovative Companies of 2024. Circ has pioneered technology to recover the original materials used in polycotton blended fabrics, partnering with major labels to recycle clothing.

• Detavio Samuels ’02, CEO at REVOLT, spoke with Black Enterprise about the future of the media and TV company.

• Forbes reflected on the impact of the Duke-UNICEF Innovation Accelerator, which during its four years supported enterprises that reached more than 17 million people; the Accelerator’s content is now being developed into a massive open online course (MOOC) to support other social enterprises.

• Reagan Digby ’27, a student in Duke I&E course Building Global Audiences, got 1.5M+ views and media coverage for her TikTok video polling fellow classmates about whether the “basketball kids” in the course would show up for class following their 38-point victory over James Madison University; Building Global Audiences teaches the evolving creator economy and social media business and marketing skills.

• Casey Goldstein ’24 spoke with Duke Mag about his venture, College to Climate, which connects college students to climate careers.

• Dhruv Bindra ’25, co-founder of “Tindr for Clothes” startup Style, gained attention for his unique strategy leveraging TikTok to get millions of views on his app in just one week.

• Rachael Classi MBA ’14, founder and CEO of educational toy company Tiny Earth Toys, and Sloane Tilley MBA ’23, co-founder and CEO of non-invasive biometric company Dia, were cited in a Triangle Business Journal piece about founders finding new ways to grow despite a worsening capital environment for women entrepreneurs.

• Chris Robinson MBA ’19 completed his self-funded search acquisition of Actionaire, an HVAC-R contractor serving coastal Washington state for over 25 years.

• Stephanie Louis ’04, founder of SOTRO Innovations—a haircare technology company—announced that SOTRO was one of a dozen companies selected for the Build in Tulsa Techstars Accelerator Spring 2024 cohort.

• Dylan Stewart ’17, founder of sports media agency Social Steering, announced the company won “Creative Content of the Year” at The Race Media Awards.

• Sarah Houston ’24, founder of Aurganics Skincare, announced that the organic skincare company has generated more than four figures in revenue in its first month of sales. Aurganics also pitched at this year’s ACC InVenture Prize competition, representing Duke in a live PBS broadcast.

• Bonfire Analytics, led by co-founders Vinay Nagaraj E ’16, ME ’17 and Jaya Pokuri E’17, raised an oversubscribed $2M venture round of funding; the AI-driven sales platform enables healthtech companies to sell more effectively to providers and health plans.

• Atlas, a work benefits tool for global companies to manage their contractor benefits from one place, has raised $2.75M of seed bridge funding; Atlas is led by co-founder and CRO Josefina Van Thienen MBA ’20.

• Sports betting company DraftKings, helmed by CEO and co-founder Jason Robins ’03, has acquired Jackpocket—whose leadership team includes General Counsel Carter Vance MBA ’05, JD ’05—for $750M. Jackpocket is the first third-party app in the U.S. to offer a secure way to order official state lottery tickets.

• Elizabeth Clayborne ’05, CEO and co-founder of the NasaClip device to stop nosebleeds, was profiled in Maryland Matters and mentioned during Maryland governor Wes Moore’s state of the union address as an example of Black women overcoming challenges via entrepreneurial action.

• InvestmentNews cited the annual Savings Industry Report by retirement and savings platform Vestwell, helmed by founder and CEO Aaron Schumm MBA ’07; Vestwell was also called '“the Amazon of financial services” in a FinTech Collective feature.

• WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani ’01 was included in CNBC’s list of 2024 Changemakers who are innovating and transforming business.

• Michelle Addison MBA ’23, founder and CEO of Allergood, was named among the most disruptive MBA startups by Poets & Quants; Allergood helps those with food allergies shop and dine out safely.

• Orion Brown MBA ’10 was featured in SUCCESS Magazine for Black Travel Box, the company she founded to provide travel- and eco-friendly hair and skincare products for people of color.

• Cultivating Capital spoke with Monika Dharia E’19, founder and CEO of GreenGear Supply Company; GreenGear makes landfill-degradable ponchos and bags.

• Triangle tech publication GrepBeat profiled Arya Diwase MPP/MBA ’24 (founder of Himayat, a benefits platform supporting female domestic workers in developing countries); Rachel Draelos MS ’19, PhD ’22, MD ’22 (founder of Cydoc, which works towards seamless sharing of electronic medical records); and Andrea M. Inoken ’00 (co-founder of Cadence Cash, which helps women- and minority-owned businesses get funding).

• Revenite.ai, an iOS application that harnesses AI to analyze body movements and provide personalized health insights, co-founded by Joe Robertson ’21, AM ’23, announced a partnership with Brooks Rehabilitation, Florida’s top rehabilitation hospital.

• Michelle Addison MBA ’23, founder and CEO of Allergood, won the Founders Live pitch competition at Raleigh Founded.

• Electronic health record data company Truveta, co-founded by CEO Terry Myerson E’92, P’24, P’27 was among this year’s SXSW Innovation Awards finalists.

• VC firm Climactic—co-founded by Josh Felser ’86, MBA ’90—announced its launch with a $65M inaugural fund; Climactic is a software-first climate fund focused on early-stage companies that are helping enterprise and mobility companies achieve their net zero goals.

• Natrx (led by COO Tad Schwendler MBA ’03), which deals in coastal resilience and restoration solutions, was featured in Business North Carolina.

• A new Shopify commercial features Andrea Weinberg MBA '10, founder of bag brand ANDI.

• Neha Shukla ’27, bestselling author of Innovation for Everyone: Solving Real-World Problems with STEM, was named a Top Voice on LinkedIn for her content on AI ethics, youth engagement, and tech for social good.

• Alex Dulmage MBA ’17 has acquired Global Flags Unlimited, the largest American supplier of flags, flagpoles, and related accessories; Dulmage completed this self-funded acquisition as an operating partner with Search Investment Group.

• #BrilliantBlackMinds—an initiative by Karat Software Development, co-founded by Jeffrey Spector ‘00—surpassed 6,500 members, enabling Black software engineers to unlock more job opportunities at leading partner organizations.

• Dia, co-founded by CEO Sloane Tilley MBA ’23, was selected for South by Southwest Pitch 2024; Dia non-invasively analyzes sweat and saliva in real time to measure biomarkers.

• Black Travel Box, founded by Orion Brown MBA ’10 to provide travel- and eco-friendly hair and skincare products for people of color, was recognized as a Colorado Innovation Startup to Watch for 2024 by the Denver Business Journal.

• Jenn Summe MBA ’22, investor with Triangle tech VC firm Primordial, was quoted in a Triangle Inno story about how to win VC investments in 2024.

Duke I&E Network Funding Highlights:

• Unitus Capital, co-founded by CEO Eric Savage ’92, raised Rs 140 crore (~16.8 million USD) for its venture capital fund.

• FemTech company Nooshee, led by co-founder and CEO William Brody MBA ’18 and co-founder and President Lara Haft Brody MBA ’20, has closed $1.7 million (of a $3.5 million round) for its category-defining new breast pump.

• SunFi—a fintech platform helping solar providers offer payment plans and improved services, led by CEO and co-founder Rotimi Thomas MBA ’13—won the 2023 Clean Tech Innovation Award from Art of Technology Lagos.

Duke I&E Network Media Highlights:

• Not one, not two, but SIX Duke alumni were named to this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list in a broad range of categories, demonstrating how Duke’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Network is changing the world across industries:

  • Monika Dharia BSE ’19, founder and CEO of GreenGear Supply Company, in the Social Impact category; GreenGear makes landfill-degradable ponchos and bags.

  • Hao Geng BS ’16, in the Science category; Geng is a theoretical physicist whose research focuses on understanding quantum gravity, including the “black hole information paradox” first proposed by Stephen Hawking in the 1970s.

  • Serena Kerrigan ’16 in the Social Media category; Kerrigan’s creator alter ego, “SFK” or “Serena F*cking Kerrigan,” has led her to comedy appearances on stage and screen, a dating card game, and brand partnerships with Nike, H&M, Bumble, and more.

  • Xinyu Liu MMS ’20, co-founder of Persperion Diagnostics, in the Science category; Persperion is disrupting the blood glucose monitoring market with research into non-invasive sweat-sensing wearables.

  • Abhi Shah BS ’16 in the Games category; Shah led Microsoft’s content investments in independent developers for Game Pass, securing more than 80 titles including Hollow Knight and Silksong, and now leads live services strategy and product development at 2K Games for major licensed sports games.

  • Roger Zou BS ’16 in the Science category; Zou is developing novel Crispr and sequencing-based technologies to understand DNA damage and repair for translational applications, resulting in four patents.

• Fortune featured Deb Liu ’98, CEO at Ancestry.

• GrepBeat featured numerous Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs students: Jaylen Coleman E ’25, founder of the Infinity Portal, which makes customized 3D-printed displays with unique lighting; Sarah Houston ’24, founder of Aurganics Skincare, which makes plant-based, gentle skincare products for Black and brown women; Matthew Scola ’23, co-founder of Saveor, software to manage estate planning; and Casey Goldstein ’24, co-founder of College to Climate, an online platform designed to connect college students to climate and climate tech resources, professionals, and opportunities. 

• Allergood—founded by Michelle Addison MBA ’23 to help those with allergies shop and dine out safely—was profiled in Voyage Raleigh.

• Duke I&E lecturing fellow Aaron Dinin ’05 wrote for The Hill about the positive aspects of social media.

Duke I&E Network Progress Highlights:

• UniversalGiving—an award-winning nonprofit that connects volunteers and donors with service opportunities, founded by CEO Pamela Hawley ’91—has partnered with Apple TV+ on its Here to Help support service accompanying dark content.

• Early-stage investing firm 53 Stations, co-founded by general partner Kevin King ’06, announced its launch and the debut of its $190M fund.

• Natrx (led by COO Tad Schwendler MBA ’03), which deals in coastal resilience and restoration solutions, has landed a $1M grant from the National Science Foundation.

• Triangle Inno featured Nikin Shah MBA ’12, who manages Front Porch Venture Partners with partners Greggory Bordes MBA ’12 and Joe Mancini MBA ’12; in their recent fundraising series, Front Porch raised nearly $12.6 million.

• Former WNBA player Alana Beard ’04 launched the 318 Foundation, which works to close the opportunity gap for girls in historically underserved communities through mentorship, immersive experiences, and sports.

• WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani ’01 spoke with CNN about the business model innovation she is spearheading at the decades-old company.

• Duke I&E Board of Advisors member Melissa Bernstein ’87, co-founder of Lifelines, spoke with Fast Company about building the company, which offers stress-relief products, and about selling Melissa & Doug, the toy company she and her husband co-founded in 1988.

• Protect3D (co-founded by CEO Kevin Gehsmann ’19, CTO Tim Skapek ’20, and CSO Clark Bulleit ’19) was spotlighted on CNN for their customized athletic pads that help prevent injury and speed up the rehab process.

• David Johnson ’98, founder and former CEO of certification software startup Atlas Certified, was a recent guest on GrepBeat’s Exit Stories, sharing insights from the company’s acquisition last April by CLEAR.

• Jenn Summe MBA ’22, investor with Triangle tech VC firm Primordial, and Zakiya Alta Lee MBA ’22, senior associate at VC firm Idea Fund Partners, presented at the recent NC IDEA Summit, covered by Triangle Inno.

• GrepBeat featured Melissa & Doug Entrepreneur Lasal Mapitigama E’26, founder of Hayha Bots, an automated software that helps resellers buy items on online marketplaces before they sell out.

• Alleviate Health (co-founded by Melissa & Doug Entrepreneur John Xu ’26 with Saathvik Boompelli ’25), a web platform designed to assist doctors and nurses in performing administrative tasks more quickly and efficiently, was also profiled in GrepBeat.

• Real, a fan engagement platform for the next generation of sports fans, co-founded by John Antonelli ’23, surpassed 250,000 monthly active members.

• Duke I&E Mentor-in-Residence Chijioge Nwogu, founder and CEO of GameFlo, announced that its game PickUp will be sold in Target stores beginning this summer.

• Natrx (led by COO Tad Schwendler MBA ’03), which deals in coastal resilience and restoration solutions, has closed on $3.5M in new funding and will use the capital to scale, potentially seeking additional space in North Carolina.

• Allergood (founded by Michelle Addison MBA ’23 to help those with allergies shop and dine out safely) and Cadence Cash (co-founded by Andrea M. Inoken ’00 to help women- and minority-owned businesses get funding) were among the 15 winners, from an application field of 170, of NC IDEA MICRO grants for promising young companies in North Carolina.

• GreenGear Supply Company, a sustainable sporting goods company founded by I&E Certificate alumna Monika Dharia ’19, was selected for a $20K grant through the Antares REACH Grant Program.

• Haircare technology company SOTRO Innovations, founded by Stephanie Louis ’04, was selected as a finalist for Bridgette L. Smith’s Founder Pitch Week.

• Protect3D (co-founded by CEO Kevin Gehsmann ’19, CTO Tim Skapek ’20, and CSO Clark Bulleit ’19) is getting into the consumer market with a new iPhone app, opening up the company’s custom athletic braces to mainstream medical professionals and their patients.

• Tiny Earth Toys, a Durham-based educational toy rental company founded by CEO Rachael Classi MBA ’14 and current Duke I&E mentor in residence, has partnered with Nurtured Nest, an online service providing parenting classes.

• GrepBeat’s Friday Nooner podcast featured Belden Long OTD ’24, co-founder of justb, an evidence-based movement and mindfulness platform designed for teachers to help students with developmental disorders like autism. 

• QuantHealth—co-founded by Arnon Horev MBA ’09—announced a $15M Series A for its AI platform, which enhances the success of clinical trials.

• Identity security company Veza, helmed by co-founder and CEO Tarun Thakur MBA ’10, announced that Capital One Ventures and ServiceNow Ventures have made strategic investments in Veza, bringing the company’s total financing to $125 million.

• Orion Brown MBA ’10 was featured on Live With Kelly & Mark for Black Travel Box, the company she founded to provide travel- and eco-friendly hair and skincare products for people of color; Orion was also a donor to the recent I&E Fest raffle.

• Cadence Cash (Andrea M. Inoken ’00, co-founder and COO), which helps women- and minority-owned businesses get funding, was selected for the new cohort of the Black Founders Exchange powered by American Underground and Google for Startups. Andrea was also quoted in a TechWire article about funding for minority businesses.

• Durham-based verification software startup Validity, co-founded by Mike Liu MEng ’23 and Michael Cutro MEng ’23, launched its Validity Registry with Duke and was profiled by GrepBeat.

• Dime (Abby Huang ’23, founder), a marketplace to help brands reach Gen Z consumers, celebrated its New York City launch.

• Duke I&E selected this year’s cohort for the Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs Accelerator program; their companies are tackling pressing challenges in climate, labor, cybersecurity, and more.

• Durham clean energy startup NET Power (CFO Akash Patel MBA ’10) had its IPO.

• Triangle investor Front Porch Venture Partners (managing partners Greggory Bordes MBA ’12, Nikin Shah MBA ’12, and Joe Mancini MBA ’12) has raised nearly $12.6 million.

• Durham-based tech company Clinetic—led by CEO Tom Kaminski MBA ’07—raised a $5M Series A round of funding. The startup’s software platform helps health systems and life sciences companies conduct clinical research more efficiently.

• Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs alumnus Josh Miller ’16 is co-founder and CEO of Gradient Health, which provides pathology imaging to accelerate AI development; the company recently closed a $2.75M round of funding. Gradient Health was also featured in GrepBeat, with Miller calling the Triangle “one of the best places on Earth to start a company.”

• Moonware, co-founded by CEO Javier Vidal BSE ’20, is revolutionizing air travel with automated and sustainable airfields; the company recently raised a $2.5M pre-seed funding round.

• Arbol, a financial wellness platform for college students led by co-founder and President Favio Osorio MBA ’18, raised $350K in a pre-seed round.

• Bonfire Analytics, led by co-founder and CEO Vinay Nagaraj E’16 and co-founder and CTO Jaya Pokuri E’17, recently launched; the AI-driven sales platform enables healthtech companies to sell more effectively to providers and health plans.

• The Times of India covered a visit to The Fuqua School of Business by Namita Thapar MBA ’01 to share lessons from her entrepreneurial journey.

• BBC’s StoryWorks profiled Breanna Atkinson ’16, co-founder—with fellow Duke alum Jared Golestani ’17—of Kokada coconut spread, which has expanded into Wegmans and other grocery stores nationwide.

• SunFi—a fintech platform helping solar providers offer payment plans and improved services, led by CEO and co-founder Rotimi Thomas MBA ’13—was recognized on Norrsken’s list of the most 100 promising impact startups in the world.

• Just Date, an organic real fruit sweetener company led by CEO Samantha Abramson ’09, expanded retail for its Organic Date Sugar and launched at Sprouts nationwide.

• Mackenzie Drazan ’18, CEO and co-founder of MiResource—which curates a network of mental health providers for college students—was featured in Forbes.

• Kareem Cook ’94, MBA ’00—owner and CMO of nutritional company Naturade—shared the story with REVOLT of building the company with Claude Tellis ’95.

• Triangle Inno visited the headquarters of Tiny Earth Toys, a Durham-based educational toy rental company founded by CEO Rachael Classi MBA ’14 and current Duke I&E mentor in residence.

• Cadence Cash, led by co-founder and COO Andrea M. Inoken ’00, was featured in WRAL TechWire for its work providing '“friendly” funding solutions for minority-owned small businesses.

• Triangle Inno profiled Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs alumna Zakiya Alta Lee MBA ’22 for her new role at venture capital firm Idea Fund Partners.

• Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs alumna Janvi Shah ’15—co-founder and CEO of Hue, which supplies brands with user-generated content—was featured in an Inc article spotlighting female founders.

• GrepBeat featured Agilix Health—co-founded by Peter Meath MBA ’05—which uses digital tools to track the nutrition of cancer patients.

• Stephen Colvill MBA ’23—co-founder and executive director of RISCS, a nonprofit rating and certification organization with a mission to prevent drug shortages—was invited to the White House to attend the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Cancer Drug Shortage Roundtable.

• Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs alumna Snehal Verma MEM ’23—founder of NatureDots, which provides real-time water quality updates to fish farmers—presented at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China.

• GreenGear Supply Company, a sustainable sporting goods company founded by I&E Certificate alumna Monika Dharia ’19, was accepted to the 2023 MassChallenge U.S. Early Stage Program.

• Durham Success Summit—a nonprofit providing professional development experiences to young Black men 16-24 in Durham, founded by Derek Rhodes PPS’15—celebrated the grand opening of its physical space in downtown Durham.

• Sloane Tilley MBA ’23 (co-founder and CEO of Dia, a platform that non-invasively analyzes sweat and saliva in real time to measure biomarkers) was featured on the This Is Small Business Next Generation podcast series, which followed competitors in the Rice Business Plan Competition.

• Duke I&E lecturing fellow Aaron Dinin ’05 was featured in Duke Mag for his work supporting students in building their social media brands and platforms.

• Dia (a platform founded by Sloane Tilley MBA ’23 that non-invasively analyzes sweat and saliva in real time to measure biomarkers) and Thumbnail Game (a web game co-founded by Tim Jang ’23) won funding in the TriVent showcase.

• GrepBeat profiled Belden Long OTD ’24, co-founder of justb, an evidence-based movement and mindfulness platform designed for teachers to help students with developmental disorders like autism. 

• Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs alumna Mila de Souza ’21, CEO and founder of secondhand clothing rental subscription service The Clothing Library, spoke to Alabama Life & Culture about her business.

• Duke has selected two teams to send to the Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge finals in June: GreyGreen, led by Mason Sufnarski E ’26, provides water resource management for low-income individuals; and Nuru, led by research assistant Judith Mwobobia, is a knowledge and motivational resource for people fighting cancer.

• Duke I&E teaching faculty Aria Chernik and Kevin Hoch, Duke I&E’s Director of Educational Programs, will begin work on one of seven projects selected by the Office of the Provost for funding by The Duke Endowment to engage with “Racial and Social Equity in Local Context.”

• Amy Linnane, Duke I&E’s Managing Director for Experiential Programs, was spotlighted in Triangle Inno for her role in shaping Duke’s entrepreneurial programs.

• Jaylen Coleman E ’25, founder of the Infinity Portal, shared insights from an independent study with Professor Jason Luck that combines his knowledge of mechanobiology and biophysiology with his football experience.

• Arya Diwase MPP/MBA ’23—founder of Himayat, a benefits platform supporting female domestic workers in developing countries—wrote about how she has benefited from Duke’s rich entrepreneurial ecosystem.

• Emma Leventer ’19, founder and CEO of Cuiscene Studio—which provides food photography and video, brand development and strategy, and web development—talked to Duke I&E about her recipe for business and creative magic.

• Melissa & Doug Entrepreneur Snehal Verma MEM ’23, founder of NatureDots, which provides real-time water quality updates to fish farmers, wrote about the potential for tech-based innovations to improve water security in The Times of India.

• Sloane Tilley MBA ’23, co-founder and CEO of Dia, was featured in Bizwomen; Dia (formerly E-Sentience) is a platform that non-invasively analyzes sweat and saliva in real time to measure biomarkers, especially the stress hormone cortisol.

• Student founders from across Duke presented their ventures in the Duke Startup Showcase. The three winners of the audience choice vote were Allergood (founded by Michelle Addison MBA ’23 to help those with allergies shop and dine out safely), CONTACT Line (a platform co-founded by Aishani Saha ’23 and Ying Yu ’23 to provide crisis de-escalation via human connection), and Truffa (“dog snout” in Spanish, a vet-tech founded by Diego Silva MBA ’23 that’s working to improve veterinarians’ mental health and optimize veterinary administrative practices).

• Michelle and Allergood were also featured in Triangle Business Journal.

• The students in I&E course New Ventures: Climate shared their experiences working to create strategies for promising climate-related startups.

• Teamworks, (co-founders Zach Maurides ’07 and Mitch Heath ’11 MBA ’16), closed a $65 million Series E funding round. Teamworks is an enterprise SaaS company serving elite sports and tactical organizations globally.

• The Social Institute (co-founded by Laura Tierney ’09 and Shayna Heinrich ’08) was named as a finalist for the 2023 EdTech Awards for their #WinAtSocial Insights program.

• Katie Gailes MBA ’91, a director of the North Carolina Business Council and an entrepreneurship mentor, was the featured guest on GrepBeat podcast Friday Nooner, where she spoke about funding ideas for new entrepreneurs.

• During the recent Duke Private Equity & Venture Capital Conference, keynote speaker David Rubenstein ’70, co-founder and co-chairman of the Carlyle Group, shared insights from his decades in business and philanthropy.

• The Duke Entrepreneurial Leaders Network (ELN), a select group of Duke alumni who are committed to founding or leading an innovation-drive startup, has announced its 2023 cohort, which includes eight Duke students in their final year of study in law, business, chemistry, pharmacology, and electrical and computer engineering, along with eight alumni founders and executive leaders working in software, AI, healthcare, biotech, med tech, and legal counsel. ELN is a partnership between Duke I&E and the Office for Translation and Commercialization, with support from Duke Capital Partners.

• Duke I&E instructor Aaron Dinin’s Building Global Audiences course was featured on the Today Show, with many student creators sharing their class experiences; Dr. Dinin also spoke with the Wall Street Journal about the evolving creator economy and how Duke students are building social media business skills.

• Real, a fan engagement platform for the next generation of sports fans, co-founded by John Antonelli ’23, closed an undisclosed seed round of funding to support their growth.

• Sloane Tilley MBA ’23, co-founder and CEO of E-Sentience, was named a finalist in the Rice Business Plan Competition and was recently featured in Grepbeat; E-Sentience is a platform that non-invasively analyzes sweat and saliva in real time to measure biomarkers, especially the stress hormone cortisol.

• Molly Montgomery MBA ’23 has been named a finalist in the Microsoft World 2023 Imagine Cup for her venture, Outset, a digital wardrobe management platform that allows users to monetize their closets with the click of a button.

• Abby Huang ’23 was featured in Grepbeat for Dime, the marketplace she founded to help brands reach Gen Z consumers.

• Arya Diwase MPP/MBA ’23 swept Wednesday’s Fuqua Fast Pitch competition, winning all three prizes with her venture Himayat, a benefits platform supporting female domestic workers in developing countries.

• Duke entrepreneurs are building their startups locally and making a meaningful impact on the regional economy, as evidenced by our strong presence at the CED Venture Connect Summit, which brings together high-growth tech and biotech companies in the Southeast. More than 40 Duke students and alumni presented at Venture Connect; Duke I&E highlighted many of the founder and CEO presenters on our LinkedIn page.

• Isolere Bio, founded by Entrepreneurial Leaders Network member Kelli Luginbuhl PhD ’17, was acquired by Donaldson Company, a leading worldwide provider of innovative filtration products and solutions; Isolere’s novel and proprietary reagents and filtration processes are used for the purification and streamlined manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals.

• Gavin Jocius MBA ’20, co-founder and COO of Mosi Tea, pitched Mosi to Alex Lieberman while wakeboarding.

• Ben Abram BSE ’07, CEO of Modern Energy, spoke about the Durham-headquartered company’s work with entrepreneurs in the clean energy space to launch, scale, and operate emerging platforms.

• Olivia Coletta ’21 discussed her role as Head of Engagement at Caraway, which provides mental, physical, and reproductive health services and support for people ages 18+, with a focus on women and individuals assigned female at birth.

• Alumni working at Triangle-area startups returned to Duke for StartupConnect Networking Fair to recruit students and share insights about startup life.

• Duke Magazine featured my New Ventures: Develop class and spotlighted some alumni of the course: Michelle Addison MBA ’23, founder and CEO of Allergood (which helps those with food allergies shop and dine out safely); Agbai Eke Agbai, Jr MBA ’22 (who used entrepreneurial skills to organize an African tribal art exhibit); Joe Robertson ’21, co-founder of Revenite.ai (an iOS application that harnesses AI to analyze body movements and provide personalized health insights); and Gordon Silverman MBA ’21 and Mahek Chhatrapati MBA ’21, co-founders of DocNexus (whose NeuroGraph Search platform aggregates and organizes healthcare industry data essential to pharmaceutical and medical device businesses).

• A team of Duke MBA students won the regional Venture Capital Investment Competition (beating previous Global Champions from University of Chicago and Georgetown University) and will head to the Global Final at UNC next month.

• Arya Diwase MPP MBA ’24 was accepted to be a delegate for the 2023 Global Engagement Summit for her venture Himayat, a benefits platform supporting female domestic workers in developing countries.

• Michelle Addison MBA ’23 expanded the pilot for her venture Allergood—which helps those with allergies dine out and shop safely—into local eatery Nanasteak.

• Sloane Tilley MBA ’23, co-founder and CEO of E-Sentience—which diagnoses, monitors, and treats whose suffering from physical and mental stress using wearable technology—was selected to present at TEDxDuke.

• Flavio Caffarello MBA ’23 shared how he built his knowledge of private equity in Fuqua’s Leveraged Buyouts Lab, a collaboration between Duke I&E and Fuqua’s PE Club.

• Monica Vendituoli MBA ’23 described how Duke’s entrepreneurial ecosystem supported her in launching Mav Media & Messaging, a marketing and media relations business.

• ShiftMed, a health care workforce marketplace helmed by founder and CEO Todd Walrath MBA ’93, raised $200 million in fresh funding to tackle the nurse shortage in the U.S. health care system.

• SunFi, led by co-founder and CEO Rotimi Thomas MEM MBA ’13, has raised $2.3 million in seed funding. The Nigerian clean tech startup connects people and businesses who want solar energy access to payment plans matching their needs.

• Hannah Wilen BSE ’20, MSQM:BA ’22, founder and CEO of Capd Period, was named a $40K winner at the 2023 Westly Prize event for the CapdCup, the first menstrual cup that can be emptied without being removed; the prize will enable Capd Period to distribute 10,000 CapdCups to women in Uganda. Hannah also shared some insights with Duke I&E regarding her founder’s journey and lessons learned so far.

• Elizabeth Clayborne ’05—emergency room physician and founder and CEO of NasaClip, which helps stop nosebleeds—was featured in a CNBC piece about the funding challenges faced by Black entrepreneurs and founders.

• Monika Dharia E’19, founder of GreenGear Supply Company—which makes reusable, recyclable rain ponchos—has been awarded the 2023 Rising Leader Award by She Raises Capital.

• Bobby Sharma ’95, Law ’98 launched Bluestone Equity Partners, a sports, media, and entertainment-themed private equity firm with a first $300 million fund. 

• Melissa & Doug Entrepreneur Snehal Verma MEM ’23, founder of NatureDots—which provides real-time water quality updates to fish farmers—was selected as a winner of the @UpLink World Economic Forum and @HCL Enterprise Global Freshwater Challenge.

• Duke I&E Certificate student Brian Young ’24 is part of [ stage ], an innovative pop-up restaurant that brings fine dining to a small group of Duke students each week.

• Duke I&E Certificate student Sarah Houston ’24, who was awarded the 2022 Rasheed A. Wiggins Entrepreneurial Prize, is the founder of Aurganics Skincare, which makes plant-based, gentle skincare products for Black and brown women; she will be working on Aurganics Skincare in this semester’s New Ventures: Develop class.

• Teamworks, led by founder and CEO Zach Maurides ’07, is an enterprise SaaS company serving collegiate and professional sports organizations; Teamworks recently acquired four best-in-class technologies including NextPlay, founded by Kyle Mumma BA ’13, MBA ’18.

• Tiny Earth Toys, a Durham-based educational toy rental company founded by CEO Rachael Classi MBA ’14, raised $1.6 million and plans to hire additional workers in the Triangle.

• Releaf, a Nigerian agritech startup that supplies ingredients to consumer goods manufacturers and their food factories, raised $3.3 million in an oversubscribed pre-Series A round. Uzoma Ayogu ’17, Releaf’s co-founder and CTO, worked on the company at Duke in the Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs program.

• Baton, led by co-founder and CEO Chat Joglekar MBA ’04, provides free valuations to small businesses, allowing them to know their worth before passing the baton to a new owner; the startup recently announced $2.8 million in pre-seed funding.

• Katherine Manuel MBA '04 is COO for House of Blueberry, which makes digital fashion assets for the multiverse; the company recently raised $6 million and spoke with Triangle tech publication Grepbeat about the popularity of digital fashion.

• Butter Payments, led by founder and CEO Vijay Menon ’11, raised $22M in its Series A funding round; Butter Payments drives revenue growth for subscription-based services by optimizing payment processing.

• Truss Vet, co-founded by CJ Casseli MBA ’19, opened its first location in Cary; the urgent care center for cats and dogs aims to fill the gap between pets’ veterinarians and 24-hour emergency animal hospitals.

• In a New York Times piece about the strength of climate startups, Josh Felser BA ’86, MBA ’90—co-founder of Climactic, a VC firm—said that the eleven climate tech companies the firm has invested in over the past two years are now worth 2.5 times more than at the time of investment.