At the conclusion of an eight-month competition, NYU’s most promising innovators received startup funding and pro-bono services valued at more than $225,000 at NYU Stern’s annual Entrepreneurs Challenge, organized by the School’s Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship. The three winning teams were chosen after pitching their ideas and enduring Q&A by a panel of judges.

May 13 marked the culmination of one of the largest and most rigorous intra-collegiate venture competitions. Students, faculty and alumni from schools across NYU’s global network participated this year in one of three competition tracks: Technology Venture, Healthcare/Biomedical Venture, and New Venture. The Rennert Family Grand Prizes, made possible by the generous support of the Rennert Family Foundation, Ira Rennert (MBA ’56) and Ari Rennert (BS ’01), were presented in each category:

Technology Venture Competition:
The $75,000 Prize was awarded to TrovBase.

Founded by Samantha Jordan (MBA '21), Nathaniel Bechhofer, Harout Boujakjian, and Andrew Hornstra, TrovBase is a platform that re-implements software engineering best practices to scientific research, making high quality data collection and management accessible for researchers through a simple, intuitive interface.

Healthcare/Biomedical Venture Competition:
The $75,000 Prize was awarded to Sipple.

Founded by Vitaly Shlimovich (MBA '22) and Caroline Martinez (SPS '22), Sipple is a smart precision feeding tool for parents of premature infants to resolve difficulties with crucial feeding skills and ensure optimal food intake for growth and development.

New Venture Competition:
The $75,000 Prize was awarded to Baton.

Founded by Armon Naeini (Tisch '23), Gabe Warshaw (Tisch '23), Claire Bogle, and Sami Forzinetti, Baton is a blockchain-enabled web platform and collaboration protocol designed for the future of creative digital exchange.

The finalist teams showcased their ventures through brief pitches and explainer videos before a virtual audience of NYU students, faculty and alumni, as well as members of the broader NYC startup community, who voted for their favorite teams. This year, Celer, Sipple, and Techfunic received the Audience Choice Awards.

Visit the NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship website