On May 5 2021 Tuverl was one of the winners of the 10th Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge run by the Harvard Innovation Labs and funded by the Bertarelli Foundation. Tuverl won a US$25,000 prize for our work on Public Transport in Africa. This was the culmination of a 6 months long Launch Lab X GEO program for Harvard Alumni.
Tuverl seeks to make Transportation cheaper, reliable and more accessible to millions of commuters across African countries, by helping Operators reduce operational inefficiencies, optimize their routes and increase their revenue. Tuverl leverages cloud computing, data analytics, geolocation, and fintech to improve and optimize Public Transport and how commuters in African countries pay for it.
The President’s Innovation Challenge is a competition designed to bring the Harvard community together to work on solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. Winning teams will receive a share of $510,000 in prizes from the Bertarelli Foundation
25 start-ups founded by Harvard University students and alumni competed in the President’s Innovation Challenge finals. There were 5 tracks that included Social Impact, Health and Life Sciences, Open track for ideas that transcend categories, Launch Lab X GEO for eligible alumni-led ventures and the Life Lab track for high-potential biotech and life sciences ventures currently in residence at the Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab. Each track had 5 teams, and 2 teams from each track won the 1st prize and the 2nd runner-up prize. A total of US$10 000 was part of the ingenuity awards. 3 teams were awarded the ingenuity awards for early-stage ventures with the potential to be world-changing.
The following five teams were winners of the grand prizes. Each team walked away with US$75 000.
- The Apprentice Project: Developing students in India into future leaders through choice-based learning.
- Chaku Foods: Making snacks that are better for people and better for farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Karivez Bio: Transforming chronic disease treatment through improved drug delivery.
- Matice Biosciences: For leveraging nature’s regenerative powers to flawlessly repair skin.
- Manifold Bio: For changing drug discovery into measurement-driven drug design.
Five ventures teams were awarded $25,000 each. The second-place winners were:
- Beacon Bio: Improving hearing and healing by restoring eardrums with regenerative grafts.
- My Dental Key: Advancing dental education via comprehensive, expert-verified dental education technology.
- SanaRx Biotherapeutics: Developing live therapeutics to treat diseases of the alimentary tract.
- Thrive!: Helping local governments budget for equity and root out racism.
- Tuverl: Making public transportation more accessible for commuters in African countries.
And lastly, Harvard granted $10,000 to three Ingenuity Award winners
- CshFlow: Using blockchain to provide financial services to the unbanked.
- Morphology: Developing smart, robotic lighting that adjusts to people’s needs.
- ChalkEd: Harnessing data to make online classes engaging and equitable for every student.