Announcing the 2025 Tufts New Ventures Competition Finalists
On March 14, thirty teams of Tufts entrepreneurs competed in the Tufts New Ventures Competition Semifinals for the opportunity to advance to the Finals, which will be held on April 4th. Finalists have a chance at cash prizes and in-kind services valued at over $250,000. Hosted by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, the Tufts New Ventures Competition is the flagship venture competition at Tufts. Aspiring entrepreneurs – including Tufts undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and alumni – pitch their innovative ventures to a panel of judges in one of three tracks: General, Healthcare & Life Science, or Social Impact.
Teams in the Tufts New Ventures Competition work to refine their business plans and practice their pitches through the application process, as well as workshops and one-on-one coaching sessions provided by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center. Thirty teams advance past the application stage and have the chance to pitch their ventures to a panel of judges and a hybrid audience.
This year’s ventures ranged from apps that reduce food waste and food insecurity on college campuses, to AI color analysis tools for color blind people, to medical devices that improve the efficiency and comfort of dialysis. Despite the diversity of focus, every team shared the goal of improving the way we live or work and tackling society’s most pressing problems. As noted in the opening remarks of the Dean of Tufts University School of Engineering, Kyongbum Lee, these ventures represent some of the important, real-world impact that the University’s research and community can have.
After a difficult deliberation, the competition judges selected five teams from each track to advance to the live Finals. Read on to learn more about the finalists through excerpts of their self-submitted descriptions as they prepare for the Tufts New Ventures Competition Finals on April 4! Register here to attend the Finals.
General
HueSpectra
“Your own personal AI agent for color blind people.”
Every day, countless color blind individuals face challenges like picking ripe bananas or determining if their food is fully cooked. HueSpectra is an AI-powered image color analysis mobile app designed to bridge this gap by providing accurate color identification. The chatbot enables interactive conversations, helping users navigate daily tasks with confidence.
InstaRemit
“We help international Indian students remit money from India to the US in under 15 minutes.”
Indian international students face financial stress due to slow, cumbersome, and expensive remittance options. InstaRemit solves this by offering near-instant, secure money transfers from India to the U.S. in under 15 minutes.
Probie
“Save Time, Solve More: One Secure Hub for All Police Evidence.”
Local police departments face two major pain points: fragmented evidence management and a time-consuming report and review process. Probie is developing a centralized system that integrates with current practices. Probie’s three-pronged approach uses cloud storage to consolidate all case evidence under one file.
Squibber
“Subletting Simplified.”
Squibber is a marketplace for subleasing and connecting hosts and subletters in a seamless, secure, and legally bound environment. Squibber helps hosts and subletters navigate the often disorganized subleasing process by offering a platform where verified listings and secure transactions ensure peace of mind for both parties.
Verse
“Helping promote student critical thinking and prevent AI misuse by providing assignable, voice-based conversations with AI.”
Discussions in online courses are overrun by responses generated by AI. Enter Verse, which offers assignable, voice-based conversations on course content that students have with AI. Rather than typing their responses to questions, students talk to an AI about instructor-set questions, with the AI asking individualized follow-up questions that prompt students to think deeper.
Healthcare & Life Science
Cureva
“Accelerating clinical trials with AI-powered patient matching.”
Cureva is an AI-powered matching system that embeds directly into EHR systems like Epic and Athena for real-time results. Cureva uses a proprietary, targeted matching algorithm that beats LLMs. Fully automated recruitment reduces reliance on CROs reducing costs by 30-40%. Cureva aims to become the dominant automated recruitment system, reducing trial costs by $1B+ annually and slashing drug development timelines by months.
embrace by Lynk Design LLC
“A prevention tool for venous needle dislodgement.”
Quality of life for those diagnosed with end stage renal failure is severely impacted due to their frequent, long, and painful dialysis treatments. This procedure is quite painful, and patients are susceptible to complications, whether external or user error dependent. To make the process more efficient for nurses and more comfortable for patients, embrace by Lynk Design is bringing to market a mechanical device to prevent one of the greatest risk factors during hemodialysis treatment: venous needle dislodgement.
EntoCellular
“Harnessing the power of insect resiliency to create sustainable, cost-effective, and ethical pet food ingredients.”
EntoCellular will capitalize on insect diversity and cellular adaptability to generate scalable, sustainable, and ethical pet food ingredients. By securing a diverse range of starting insect cells, filtering for cells that grow best in a low-cost, food-grade media, and optimizing cells for efficient biomass production through adaptive laboratory evolution, EntoCellular will develop new cell line(s). These cell lines will be licensed to existing cell-cultivated pet food companies and scaled to sell biomass to pet food manufacturers.
KYTOS Therapeutics
“Enduring Strength for Every Step.”
The goal of KYTOS Therapeutics is to redefine orthopedic treatments. With a flagship disease modifying drug, “AthenaJoint,” KYTOS Therapeutics aims to provide an affordable, convenient, and effective cure for osteoarthritis. If successful, AthenaJoint would change the way tens of millions of people in the U.S. and hundreds of millions of people around the world experience chronic pain, allowing them to once again partake in the activities they love without joint pain.
Lotus
“Revolutionizing clinical trials with AI-powered efficiency.”
Lotus revolutionizes clinical trials by solving patient recruitment and engagement challenges. With AI-driven voice agents and real-time data analysis, Lotus helps clinical trials sites, CROs, and Pharma companies efficiently analyze and identify eligible patients, and improves retention through proactive patient communication - all within a single intelligent framework.
Social Impact
allGrow
“Connect. Collaborate. Cultivate.”
allGrow is a platform enabling the exchange of intellectual property within the cultivated meat industry, incentivized through a shared equity fund. Through the allGrow platform, cultivated meat companies can contribute IP they consider non-essential to their specific competitive advantage. In exchange, they receive access to a shared pool of IP containing similar information from other participating companies, which they can use to solve technical challenges previously solved by other companies.
Freebites
“Eliminating college food waste and food insecurity one free bit at a time.”
Freebites tackles food insecurity and food waste on college campuses through a mobile app that instantly connects students with free, available food on campus. The Freebites app allows event hosts, faculty, and organizations to post leftover food, making it easily discoverable for students in need.
RemoBrush
“Where tradition meets innovation – herbal oral care redefined with Miswak.”
RemoBrush is the world’s first Miswak-infused toothbrush, tackling both environmental and healthcare challenges. Miswak, an herbal twig known for its natural antibacterial properties, has been used for centuries to help reduce plaque, combat bacteria, soothe gum sensitivity, whiten teeth naturally, and freshen breath, all while promoting improved oral hygiene. RemoBrush’s bio-based bristles blend the power of natural Miswak with sustainable materials, offering an eco-friendly alternative to traditional toothbrushes.
SHEFe
“Iron-rich nutrition creating stronger mothers, healthier children, and empowered communities.”
SHEFe is a mission-driven not-for-profit tackling the pervasive issue of iron deficiency among pregnant women and young children in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Niger. Through data-driven strategies and community engagement, SHEFe aims to reduce maternal and infant mortality by making iron supplementation more accessible, affordable, and effective. Our vision is a future where no child is born disadvantaged due to iron deficiency.
TalkMotion
“Connecting Worlds: Breaking communication barriers for the deaf and aphonic with AI-powered sign language translation.”
TalkMotion is a cloud-based AI platform that translates sign language into voice and voice into sign language in real-time. It enables seamless communication between deaf/aphonic individuals and those who do not know sign language. The platform is accessible via a web portal and soon a smartphone app, making it easy to use in schools, workplaces, healthcare settings, and daily life. TalkMotion empowers the deaf and aphonic community to communicate freely, reducing isolation and improving access to opportunities.
To learn more about the Finalist teams and the Tufts New Ventures Competition, please click here.
Don't miss the exciting culmination of the Tufts New Ventures Competition: register today for the Live Finals on April 4!