Stories of Innovation

WHO WE ARE The Varsity Esports Foundation is a global non-profit organization established to offer financial assistance to schools and to provide a pipeline for students to reach their potential through esports. We strive to increase literacy around the esports industry’s positive impact on healthy lifestyles, mental health, community, and...

CARBON REFORM TURNS EVERYDAY HVAC INFRASTRUCTURE INTO A PLATFORM FOR ENERGY SAVINGS, CLEAN AIR, AND CARBON REMOVAL Most climate solutions feel far removed from everyday life. Direct air capture, industrial-scale carbon removal, next-generation infrastructure – these approaches matter, but they often feel inaccessible or years away from practical use. Carbon...

Using waste materials to create furniture for the spaces, a fusion of art and creative business to bring life to open spaces, and all this was sparked by the fact that in my city, Gaborone, open spaces are mostly used for a carwash, driving schools, second-hand clothing sales, or food...

Playmaker Recruiting was born from the broken system that is college athlete recruiting, with the mission to help students and coaches navigate the complicated recruiting process, and provide greater access to opportunities at the next level. Having seen friends and family go through the college recruiting process, it was apparent...

RFLX is an integrated suite of content marketing expertise, dedicated to the eSports, sports, and lifestyle industries in North America. Our purpose is to create online and offline experiences that are both captivating and exhilarating and allow brands to increase or establish their notoriety. RFLX was born out of a...

Valley Bank is committed to fostering a culture where people can collaborate, create, and conceive ideas that provide our customers with an unmatched banking experience. That’s why we don’t define innovation from strictly a technological perspective, but rather as a way to enhance our customers’ experience through thoughtful, creative solutions...

FOUR RESEARCH AREASDigital territoriesTo promote the development of digital, collaborative, and entrepreneurial skills among the ecosystem stakeholders. SMEs digital transitionSupport small and medium-sized enterprises in their digital transition by fostering the digital skills of leaders, team managers and employees through digital transformation support. Digital entrepreneurship & leadershipStimulate digital entrepreneurship in...

The gaming community has always been full of diverse people and communities. However, the developers of games have not always reflected the same diversity. Marginalized people have not been offered many of the same opportunities as their counterparts. It’s time to move across the country, and the only person with...

Drug development is traditionally expensive and lengthy, often spanning over a decade and costing billions of dollars to bring a single drug to market. However, pharmaceutical companies today are adopting innovative strategies to significantly reduce these timelines and costs without compromising safety or efficacy. Leveraging technology for early discovery Technological...

I always say to my team, “Digitisation has become a necessity in a world consumed by mobile devices”. Our digital mental health platforms aim to promote mental wellness by being up close and personal in your mobile device. – Kesego Mosime, CEO and Co-Founder, First-Aid Counselling. In a country with...

Every few years, a technology quietly shifts from being a simple tool to becoming part of the invisible infrastructure that moves the world forward. QR codes have reached that point not through hype, but through the natural way people now interact with information. What was once a square barcode on...

Have you ever wondered what it takes to create content for games or interactive stories. The overwhelming number of 30+ tools you must juggle? What is the chance for you to succeed amidst the endless pool of published games? The team developing VIO, Oleg Sidorkin, CTO, xIBM Chief AI Architect...

Social casinos were designed to be fun, especially for those who want to enjoy their favorite casino games without any pressure. However, players might sometimes feel stuck in a losing streak. While luck remains a crucial factor when it comes to winning at social casinos, it might be that you’ve...

Where the echoes of history and the pulse of modern life intersect in Washington, D.C., a groundbreaking project is taking shape: the 11th Street Bridge Park. Led by Scott Kratz, Senior Vice President of the non-profit organization Building Bridges Across The River and partnering with the District Department of Transportation,...

ELEVATOR PITCH We document a plan for efficiency and success. That plan could include hardware, software, app development, or just the use of apps that offer better efficiency. We measure our progress, document the improvement, profitability, and savings that are produced by our efforts. Then we help our customers identify...

Created in 2015 company, BLUEWAVE Technologies is a health-tech startup that started out of the University of Florida’s Innovation Hub. Innovation Hub. BLUEWAVE Technologies is a health-tech startup and the creator of the BLUEWAVE, a device that can deodorize items with its proprietary ozone infusion technology in as little as...

Our story begins with a dream and a vision of Andrew “Skip” Robinson Carter. Carter was born in 1919 and raised in Savannah, Georgia. In 1933, at the young age of 14, Carter’s aspirations of operating a Black radio station began, and he built his first radio. He studied physics...

The products and services we offer are all aligned with our strategic mission: creating products and content for the good of gamers. Dana Paul, the co-founder and CEO of Ritual Motion, realized there was a gap in the gaming and esports industry around health, wellness, diversity, and true human connectivity...

LoggerHead Tools’ mission is to create innovative hand tools manufactured in America. The company’s flagship product is the Bionic Wrench™, a tool that combines the convenience of pliers with the performance of a wrench. The company launched the Bionic Wrench at the National Hardware Show in 2005 and has since...

Born out of a desire for an alternative to unfulfilling college night-life, Mettā Creative has existed on the fringes of DMV culture since November 2016. Mettā, which means “loving-kindness” in Sanskrit, is a bonding agent, a glue between people, their community, and the public good. In the early days, Creative...

DESIGNED IN PHILADELPHIA. MADE IN USA. SHIPPED WORLDWIDE. Founded in Philadelphia in 2015 by an immigrant biomedical researcher, AUM BioTech now designs the precision compounds that scientists in nearly forty countries use to study how genes function, and understand what goes wrong in disease. In 2009, Veenu Aishwarya arrived in...

At Plug and Play we believe that innovation should be open to anyone, anywhere. Plug and Play is building the leading innovation platform in the world focused on bringing Fortune 1000 corporations, innovative technology startups, and institutional investors together to develop and implement the technologies of tomorrow. Our innovation platform...

The Health Technology Catalyst (CTS), founded in 2008 as a not-for-profit organization, is an à la carte growth accelerator which responds to the challenges and needs of each startup. Its mission: catalyze the growth of life sciences startups, particularly in medical technology and digital health, by offering customized acceleration services....

At the heart of innovation lies a problem and entrepreneurs are the needed visionaries that see a better way to live, work, or play. At the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, commonly known as “the EC,” we help entrepreneurs develop and build upon their business with an organizational vision to make our...