We are thrilled to announce this year’s 26 semi-finalists out of a pool of 140 teams advancing to the next round of the Wharton Business Plan Competition. By the time Phase II wrapped up, 155 judges had provided nearly 1,000 business plan reviews for the participants, including written feedback on each submission. Thank you so much to all the volunteer judges who helped us in Phase II! We could not have done it without you!
This year’s semifinalists represent students from the four professional schools at Penn: The Wharton School, The Perelman School of Medicine, the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences and the College of Arts & Sciences. The Wharton representation includes students from the MBA Program, the Wharton Executive MBA program in Philadelphia and San Francisco, and the Wharton undergraduate program.
Now the students are incorporating all the feedback they received from the judges. The next step will be for these top 26 teams to submit a full business plan, present a brief presentation to a panel of judges and compete against other submissions in their industry area. Look for our announcement of our Great Eight finalists in early April as they work toward presenting at the Venture Finals on April 24th.
The 2012-2013 Wharton Business Plan Competition Semi-Finalists are:
AcuRigHT
Vivek Behera, M’15
AcuRigHT is developing a therapy for resistant hypertension.
AirCare
George Zeng, WG’13; Rushil Goel, WG’13
AirCare is a mobile video platform application for nurses to interact with patients to reduce hospital readmissions and coordinate care.
AlphaX
Stanley Lim, W’13; Dustin Shung, W’12
AlphaX is developing a novel, oral small molecule drug for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
American Residential Equity
Matthew Cantatore, WG’14
American Residential Equity is an investment vehicle providing investors the opportunity to invest directly into residential property in the highly undervalued Jacksonville metropolitan area.
AutoAlpha
David Wynne, WG’14
AutoAlpha is a mint.com for private equity and venture capital investors, driving value creation by aggregating and analyzing varied portfolio data.
Certiorari
Adam Katz, WG’14; Scott Schneider, WG’14
Certiorari is a comprehensive educational resource that closes the knowledge gap between lawyers and their clients.
First Mortgage Institution of Cote d’Ivoire
Carlos Dadi, WEMBA’14
First Mortgage is a 5-year business plan to create the first mortgage-only financial institution in Cote d’Ivoire (West Africa).
Hemishare
Lisa Lovallo, WG’13
Hemishare recruits young professionals from the US to work at startups and tech firms in Brazil, developing an online community of Brazil aficionados in the process.
Hometique
Jianwei Low, WG’14; Jaeho Chung, WG’13; Sanghoon Kwak, WG’14; Sanghoon Kwak, WG’14; Jaeho Chung, WG’14
Hometique is a marketplace for top furniture boutiques.
immunoFix Therapeutics
Jonathan Yu, WG’14; Alex Chin, WG’14; James Hui, M’14
immunoFix therapeutics is developing personalized therapeutics for inflammatory/autoimmune diseases. The initial focus is on alternative TNF/TNFR superfamily pathways in genetically susceptible patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
Kidsworld
Ramji Sundararajan, WG’13
Kidsworld plans to be the largest online store selling products aimed at moms, babies and toddlers in South-East Asia. It promises the best customer experience, free delivery and the largest selection of globally sourced quality products for moms and kids.
Maculens
Frank Brodie, M’14 WG’14; Rob Bressler, WG’14
Maculens is a novel polymer coating that reduces glare and discomfort from oncoming headlights.
OmniSom Solutions
Taylor Jamerson C’16
The Lyra At-Home PSG addresses the unmet public health need of sleep apnea under diagnosis and capitalizes on an emerging market by transforming patients’ homes into remote sleep clinics.
PathoS
Christian Tojil, C’15
PathoS (Pathology Solutions) is dedicated to improving patient outcomes by streamlining the processes used in diagnostic pathology.
PlushBerry
Vijay Ramani, WEMBA SF’13
Plushberry is a customer experience-focused marketplace for buying and selling pre-owned kid’s fashion.
Quantaviz
Ari Borthakur, WEMBA’14
Quantaviz will operate as an imaging Contract Research Organization providing patented MRI technology developed at Penn for use in clinical trials and R&D efforts of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical-device companies.
SHHADE
John Barbieri, WG’14
SHHADE (Supplying Home Healthcare Alternatives and Dedicated Education) is a home health service provider which specializes in reducing the healthcare costs to insurers. SHHADE provides chronic care management to patients who over utilize emergency room and hospital services.
Showlingo
Gavin Whiteley, WEMBA SF’14
Showlingo.com is a service that matches visiting tourists with live entertainment based on their availability and preferences.
SkylBridge
Rajeev Jeyakumar, WG’13
SkylBridge is an online platform that helps startups and small businesses solve their short-term business issues by connecting them to blue chip-quality freelancers at a revolutionary price point.
Textbook Friend
Karan Parekh, W’16; Joshua Haghani, C’16; Vivek Menon, SEAS’16
Textbook Friend is an online platform, personalized to different schools with different subdomains, student networks, and marketing teams, in which students can communicate directly to buy and sell textbooks on campus, cutting out the traditionally large intermediary fees of bookstores and other services.
Top Trender
Ben Cann, WEMBA’13
Top Trender allows fashion buyers to test their intuition with accurate, customized, consumer-driven forecasts generated through our social gaming platform.
Tripeese
Rodrigo Boscolo, WG’14
Tripeese is an interactive travel website that leverages the power of social networks to help people design and book trips with their friends.
TrustCircle
Sachin Chaudhry, WEMBA SF’13
TrustCircle is the world’s first social health network for families of individuals impacted by mental health issues and for physicians/organizations dedicated to solve the problem of mental health issues.
Vita Ice
Bailey Candell, W’13
Vita Ice is a new, refreshing and healthy snack aiming to disrupt the frozen food industry. They are the world’s first frozen smoothie bites. They are transforming the familiarity of a smoothie into a frozen novelty snack.
Weight Game
Michal Pilawski, WEMBA SF’14
The Weight Game is a Social and gamified weight loss program that focuses on motivation and development of long-term positive habits.
ZenKars
Jean-Mathieu Chabas, WG’13
Zenkars sells the best-priced used cars through a peaceful buying experience. They get cars directly from corporate sellers and sell them online to consumers.
Editor’s note: This post first appeared on Wharton’s Entrepreneurship Blog on Feb. 22, 2012.
