Batten Institute - Ventures - Profiles | UVA Darden School of Business

Founders & Ventures

Venture Profiles

Since its founding in 2000, the incubator program has assumed various forms with the consistent goal of providing multi-faceted support for entrepreneurs at the beginning stages of venture development.

2024 i.Lab Incubator Ventures

Acceleration Backpacks	Acceleration Backpacks, founded by Benjamin Joseph (Col Class of 2027), is the first automated backpack that provides accessibility for all. Via an internal motorsystem and bluetooth remote, users can independently lift and lower their backpacks without exerting any force.
Acute XR	Acute XR, founded by Dominik Kirchdorfer (MBA '24), creates fun therapeutic video games for children and adolescents suffering from mental health issues.
Ality Health	Ality Health, founded by Max Randolph and Julia Collins (MBA '24), makes it easy to get an opinion from a board-certified specialist in a low-cost and quick way. Have a question you forgot to ask your doctor? You can ask it here. Nervous about an upcoming procedure? Hear what other doctors think. Questions about your medication? Our doctors are ready to weigh in on your current medication protocol or recommend exploring new options.
Amphibian AI	Generative AI has many pitfalls - chat models can make up information, and they often struggle to produce accurate results. Amphibian AI, founded by Jack Deutsch (McIntire Class of 2026) and Ali Rizwan (Col Class of 2026), specializes in a technology called "knowledge graphs" which drastically boosts the quality and real-life applicability of these AI systems, outperforming industry standard techniques and leading to reliable AI adoption for businesses.
Banyan Home	Banyan Home, founded by Maxwell Godwin (Darden Class of 2025), is revolutionizing the new home onboarding experience. Imagine purchasing your dream home and having a single platform that guides you through every aspect of home ownership. From maintenance and interior design to finance, appliance repair, and home projects, our vision is to seamlessly integrate all these resources into one comprehensive application. Banyan Home empowers homeowners to personalize and enhance their living spaces, making the transition from house to home effortless and enjoyable.
bool.	bool., founded by Sachin Muralidhar (Col '24), is a social networking platform for making authentic, face-to-face connections—think Pokémon Go for making friends. When a user logs into the app, they can see and interact with other users in their immediate radius (bar, park, library, apartment complex, dorm, etc.).
College Reporting	College Reporting, founded by Jake Beyer (McIntire Class of 2025), is an online database meant for parents of college students to have access to important information and student life updates from their child's university.
Dulia	Dulia, founded by Anthony Oliverio (MBA '24), is a men's brand honoring the saints of the Catholic Church through strong, but subtle, masculine apparel.
Ethiopian Delights	Ethiopian Delights, founded by Beza Bisrat (MBA '24), brings the rich and diverse flavors of Ethiopian cuisine to a global audience by offering instant, ready-to-eat meals inspired by traditional dishes.
EZ-EAP	EZ-EAP, founded by Jacob Swisher (Edu '23, School of Nursing Class of 2025), aims to aid athletic staff in ensuring the safety of all athletes, by increasing access to EAPs, decreasing response time of medical personnel, and minimizing common shortfalls in athletic emergencies. To do this we developed an emergency action plan management app that is easy to use, effective, and specifically tailored to athletics.
Fairway to Green	Fairway to Green, founded by Kelly Okun (Darden Class of 2025), is an equitable sports media company whose mission is to increase visibility and funding in women's sports.
Grapevine	At Grapevine, founded by Jing Yuan Tiger Zhang (Engr Class of 2026), we champion the freedom of choice in shaping one's future. Our unique approach lies in leveraging existing resources within institutions to provide students with a comprehensive ecosystem that personalizes: Academic Planning, Career Acceleration, and future Employ-To-Student relationships.
Hathr AI	Hathr AI, founded by Sam Hart (MBA '24), is a private, secure, and compliant for industry or government organizations to deploy safe Artificial Intelligence as a managed service or licensed software for organizations to build out their own specialized AI tools.
Junk Labz	Founded by Zack Landsman (Engr '21), Elly Zarzyski (Engr '23) and Jack Morgan (Engr '23), Junk Labz improves local recycling with full process offerings of collection, sorting, shredding, melting, and production for polypropylene. In addition, we are also looking to reduce waste in production through sustainable business consulting.
Lame Supplements	Lame, founded by Taylor Vest (MBA '24), is a health and wellness company aimed at solving the fiber deficiency in young-adult Americans (20-40s) by offering portable fiber and gut-adjacent solutions, such as powders and capsules containing fiber, prebiotics, and probiotics for on-the-go individuals. Our mission for Lame is to make hitting daily fiber goals easy and accessible, promoting healthier living and longevity especially with the increase in colon cancer among younger adults.
Métopi	Métopi, founded by Miles Lanham (Engr Class of 2027), is a pharma company that develops health care solutions, such as the portahaler which is a smaller more portable rescue inhaler, making carrying a rescue inhaler less invasive.
Mingle Money	Lend, Earn, Connect, Grow. Welcome to MingleMoney, founded by Maximilian Martin (MBA '24) and Jo Martin, the innovative peer-to-peer microlending platform where borrowers and lenders come together to build financial futures. Experience seamless transactions, personalized lending opportunities, and a supportive community that empowers you to achieve your goals.
Moment	Moment, created by Ayush Bhatia (Col '24) and Rohit Rajuladevi (Engr '24), is an app to document your favorite memories on one timeline using pictures, video, and text. Only you add to the memory.
Nature Buff	Nature Buff, founded by Max Velinsky (Col '22), is a sustainable products company that puts a new and unique sustainable spin on outdated and non-eco-friendly daily-use items. Our flagship product is an unscented biodegradable travel-sized shampoo and body soap bar sewn in an organic “buff” mesh material.
Noogs	Noogs, founded by Ben Foote (Darden Class of 2025) and Paige Foote, makes sports nutrition products that athletes will actually look forward to eating. Our flagship sour energy chews taste like your favorite sour gummy candy.
Partnerships for Strategic Impact	Since 2013, Partnerships for Strategic Impact, founded by Maryfrances Porter (Ph.D. Clinical Psychology '05), has offered program evaluation and other data supports to small and medium-sized nonprofits and their funders. The innovative ImpactStory Strategy is a straightforward, sustainable solution for tracking mission fulfillment, refining programs, co-learning across the sector and telling powerful impact stories that engage stakeholders.
Recruiter	Recruiter, founded by Zane Alpher (Engr '21), helps technical recruiters find more candidates, faster. Organize and understand skills, discover alternate keywords, and instantly build boolean searches for LinkedIn and other job sites.
Savasan	Savasan, founded by Sneha Atwal (MBA '24), aims to infuse the principles and postures of yoga into products that promote relaxation and enhance self-care rituals. Our debut product is a pillow that supports recovery and stillness for deep relaxation.
Sprowl	At Sprowl, founded by Mukaii Mhaka (Col Class of 2026), our mission is to empower small businesses with affordable, innovative tools designed to enhance efficiency and simplify workforce management. We believe that small businesses are the backbone of our society, and our solutions are crafted with the unique challenges of these enterprises in mind. We empower non-technical leaders to harness the power of cutting-edge technology to help them build their dreams and serve their communities.
The Clearly Collective	The Clearly Collective, is a quiet luxury design agency & brand headed by founder and designer, Liv Cleary (Arch '20). The brand specializes in designing silk scarves for colleges and destinations inspired by the community's architecture. The agency designs and manufacturers specialty items for major luxury brand gifting programs and brand activations.
Tipiti Foods	Tipiti Foods, founded by Saule Kasen (MBA '20) and Laura Castellanos (MBA '20), creates food solutions for women with polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis and other metabolic disorders to promote hormonal balance and help manage symptoms. Our first products are packaged snacks catered to reduce inflammation and promote the healthy production of key hormones in women: estrogen and progesterone.
VuGru	VuGru, created by Matt Rafferty (MBA '24), Nick Rafferty and Colin Wilkie (MBA'24), is a project management platform designed for digital creators. It integrates video and photo sharing, file transfer, and client interaction into a single, intuitive system. VuGru aims to streamline media management and collaboration, ensuring that all project files and communications are centralized and easily accessible.
YellowRed	We at YellowRed, founded by Jonah Wilentz (Col Class of 2026), Krish Mehta (Engr Class of 2026) and Hadley McQuerrey (Col Class of 2026), care about you. That's why we built a simple safety college safety app made by students for students.