Startups
Competitions / Roundups / Startups

4 Philly startups made the Kairos Society’s annual hot list of 25-and-under founders

There was a strong showing from both Penn and health IT startups, including BioBots and Fever Smart.

Four Philly startups made the Kairos Society’s annual list of “50 Emerging Global Entrepreneurs to Watch.” Founders had to be 25 or younger to make the list.
They beat out 500 other startups and get to demo at the Kairos Global Summit in Hollywood, vying for $50,000 from Twitter cofounder Ev Williams.
See the full list
The Philly startups are:

  1. BioBots — 3D bioprinting company from Penn grads Danny Cabrera and Ricardo Solorzano, a DreamIt Health company
  2. Fever Smart — wireless thermometer company from Penn undergrads, part of the University City Science Center’s Digital Health Accelerator
  3. Nannofood — a social enterprise looking to phytoplankton as a way to provide healthy food to “undernourished areas of the world,” founded by Westtown School grad Zach Gambili
  4. Sky Mutual — a weather insurance company from Venture for America fellow John Yarchoan, who came to Philly for the VFA Accelerator

Abaris, the Wharton MBA-founded startup selling a new type of retirement plan, also made the list. They recently left Philadelphia for New York City.
Last year, only one Philly startup made the list: Penn undergrad Dan Fine’s diabetes tracking company Dosed.
Here’s info on how Kairos chose the list:

The hundreds of nominations received this year were whittled down to 50 finalists by Kairos team members and industry professionals, who evaluated each founder’s company on the feasibility of its vision and pointed out any potential technical traps the company might face. A new criterion this year was that each company on the list was required to have either a finished product or prototype, says Kairos Society CEO Alex Fiance. The judges also look for founders with companies in industries with great potential for disruption, such as education and healthcare. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they’re looking for founders with “a bit of delusional optimism,” says Fiance. “[They must] believe they can enter and change billion-dollar industries,” he adds.

Companies: BioBots / Fever Smart / Venture for America
Engagement

Join the conversation!

Find news, events, jobs and people who share your interests on Technical.ly's open community Slack

Trending

How venture capital is changing, and why it matters

Why the DOJ chose New Jersey for the Apple antitrust lawsuit

Philadelphia healthcare nonprofit wields AI to find new uses for old drugs

This Philly founder is making generational wealth building more accessible

Technically Media