Columbia Venture Competition 2020

This year, Columbia Engineering hosted its first virtual Columbia Venture Competition Finals.

The teams pitched via video, with judges joining around the world, in NYC, San Francisco, and Mumbai. Columbia Engineering sponsored two tracks in this year’s competition: The Technology Challenge and the new Urban Works India Challenge. Both tracks  focused on teams developing tech-based solutions, with those competing in the Urban Works Challenge working on sustainability solutions in urban India.

In the Technology Challenge, avoMD and EVQLV each took first place and $20,000 in funding. avoMD, led by cofounders Joongheum Park, Yair Saperstein, and Laurence Coman, is a digital point-of-care personal assistant made for doctors by doctors. EVQLV is an artificial intelligence company focused on accelerating biologic therapies. The company was founded by Andrew Satz and Bret Averso, who aimed to leverage AI to computationally design innovative antibody candidates that can be quickly synthesized and validated. Dialetica, developing wearables for managing advanced-stage kidney failure, placed in third, winning $10,000 in funding.

The tied first place winners of the Urban Works India Challenge went to Extrinsic Labs and Kara Water. Led by cofounders Cody Soodeen and Michael Di Giovanna, Kara literally turns air into water: the technology takes the humidity in the air to produce clean, drinkable water. Extrinsic Labs, founded by Akshara Baru, utilizes behavioral insights and gamification design to create training modules for organizational development. Extrinsic Labs and Kara Water each took home 1,500,000 INR in prize money. The winning teams will also receive access to training, with infrastructural support from a tech-first collaborative workspace at The CoWrks Foundry.

Thank you to the alumni judges for accommodating our online format this year and congratulations to all the teams for participating!