Announcing the 2026 Tufts New Ventures Competition Finalists
On March 27th, thirty teams of Tufts entrepreneurs competed in the Tufts New Ventures Competition Semifinals for an opportunity to advance to the Finals, which will be held on April 10th. 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, the Tufts New Ventures Competition experienced a record-breaking applicant pool of seventy teams submitting applications. Out of those applications, thirty teams of Tufts community members – who come from various Tufts University schools, colleges, and departments – were selected to pitch their ventures at the Semifinals. This year's ventures ranged from bioindustrial mining on Earth and in Space, to an AI-powered patient relationship platform, to a digital ecosystem to foster artistic communities, to a device that can reduce patient pain during IUD insertions, and beyond. Although the 2026 Tufts New Ventures Competition Semifinals showcased a wide diversity of focus, a unifying theme emerged: a shared commitment to driving a meaningful, positive impact on the world.
After difficult deliberation amongst the judges in each track, five teams were selected to advance to the live, hybrid Finals on April 10th. Read on to learn more about those fifteen finalists through their self-submitted venture descriptions, and plan to join us live in person at the Joyce Cummings Center or via zoom for the Tufts New Ventures Competition Finals on April 10! Register here to attend.
General
Barding Industries
"Bioindustrial Mining Both on Earth and in Space"
Barding Industries is closing the loop on a circular rare earth economy and building the foundation to launch it into space. Global supply chains for rare earth elements (REE) and platinum group metals (PGM) are concentrated outside Western spheres of influence, exposing defense, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing sectors to geopolitical risk. Barding’s solution is an autonomous biological extraction platform that replaces brute-force heat and harsh chemistry with precision microbial engineering.
Shinri Analytics
"We help asset managers and governments mitigate black swan risk by turning prediction market signals into actionable intelligence in seconds."
For small and midsized asset managers, something as basic as evaluating the relationship between two assets can take weeks, especially under geopolitical duress. The tools needed for this analysis are fragmented, underpowered, and ignore the qualitative factors that matter most. Shinri is a predictive intelligence platform working to solve this problem by introducing a prediction engine that predicts how geopolitical events propagate downstream to specific assets, while a scenario generator translates probabilities into plain-language trade theses.
Syren Systems
"Modular undersea drones paired with digital environments for the explorers of tomorrow."
While a multi-billion dollar industry, the current business models and hardware software blend of existing undersea autonomous vehicles are not appropriately configured to unlock their full potential. By creating a customizable, modular, and cost efficient toolkit that is accessible across all experience levels of ocean explorers, Syren Systems is poised to unlock a democratic revolution in ocean exploration that has the potential to provide enormous benefits to the health and wellbeing of our shared global commons.
TerraByte
"We empower people to ask complex spatial questions that typically require specialized tools and knowledge."
TerraByte Technologies, Inc. is a geospatial technology company currently building ScoutIQ, which assists in site selection for the film production industry. The company designs systems that leverage AI and agentic protocols to execute geospatial queries and tools against commercial and open-source databases to help fulfill logistical or creative requirements.
Tewari De-Ox Systems
"We help meat processors and exporters reduce waste and emissions by extending fresh protein shelf life 10x with our patented Zero-OxTech®."
Global protein supply chains face a structural challenge: fresh meat has a limited shelf life, leading to significant food waste, higher logistics costs, and increased greenhouse gas emissions. Tewari De-Ox Systems is addressing this challenge through the patented Zero-OxTech® platform, a preservation technology that extends the shelf life of fresh proteins to up to 120 days while maintaining quality and safety. By enabling longer chilled distribution and centralized processing, the solution reduces spoilage, improves inventory efficiency, and lowers the carbon intensity of global protein trade.
Healthcare & Life Science
Cervica
"Comfort to patients. Confidence to providers. Trust in a painless procedure with Cervica."
The IUD is a highly effective female contraceptive as it is over 99% effective in protecting against pregnancy. However, the IUD insertion procedure is very painful, leaving women with heightened anxieties about the procedure. Our device addresses a key gap in women’s health, by introducing an effective, non-invasive pain management during the procedure.
RespiraBio
"Delivering diagnostic confidence safely and effectively for those who need it most."
Interstitial lung disease (ILD) diagnosis often requires lung biopsy, yet current bronchoscopic tools produce small or inconsistent samples, while surgical biopsy carries significant risk. We are developing an integrated bronchoscopic biopsy platform that combines a controlled, large-volume tissue extraction mechanism with targeting technology designed to help physicians avoid blood vessels and the pleura, reducing complications and improving diagnostic yield.
Sonara Labs
"We help owmen feel comfortable and respected in gynecological screenings by delivering internal-level imaging without invasive probes."
For many patients, especially younger and nulliparous women, the transvaginal ultrasound procedure is invasive, distressing, and avoided. Despite decades of hardware advancement, the paradigm of pelvic imaging has not changed. We are developing a next-generation transabdominal ultrasound platform optimized for deep ovarian imaging, combining broadband hardware innovation with computational reconstruction to deliver comparable diagnostic clarity without invasive probes.
Taban
"We help both private and public health workers in low-resource settings capture, diagnose, and report patient data offline. And can sync their data to the Ministry of Health when they come back online."
In South Sudan, 67% of health facilities don’t report to DHIS2. With no national ID system, under 33% data reporting, low literacy among health workers, and minimal internet at care points, critical decisions are made with almost no data. Outbreaks go undetected; children miss vaccines; maternal deaths go unregistered. Taban is an offline-first EMR built for South Sudan’s five-level health system from Boma Health Workers managing 40 households to the Ministry of Health.
WaterDog
"Precision Sound. Anywhere."
WaterDog is a rugged and safer digital stethoscope created specifically with the unique challenges of veterinary medicine in mind. This device replaces a multitude of other stethoscopes with a handheld, tubeless, and durable stethoscope design that provides clearer sound.
Social Impact
Artrium
"Make art communities more visible, accessible, and connected."
Even today, the art world feels fragmented, inaccessible, and disconnected across thousands of websites, social media groups, newsletters, and other scattered platforms. Artrium is building a centralized digital ecosystem to address this fragmentation. Our web and mobile platform consolidates employment and artist-development opportunities while creating spaces for the exchange of resources, including studio space and art supplies. In the short term, Artrium bridges communities by reducing fragmentation and increasing shared access.
jadewell
"Jadewell helps chronic condition patients take back control of their body with affordable Chinese Herbal Medicine prescriptions delivered straight to their door."
Over 150 million Americans live with chronic conditions, and 70% of this population report that their pharmaceutical prescriptions don't alleviate symptoms. Patients are trapped in expensive trial-and-error cycles that address isolated symptoms rather than their root cause. Simultaneously, interest in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has skyrocketed as patients seek what conventional medicine cannot provide. Jadewell is the first telemedicine platform in the US making personalized CHM affordable and accessible. Our model fundamentally reimagines access by streamlining TCM care through 30-minute virtual consultations with direct-to-door delivery of monthly herbal prescriptions, scheduled follow-ups, and unlimited practitioner messaging.
Practices and Perspectives, Inc.
"Your nonprofit oasis for reconnecting soil, soul and society through authentic yoga education."
As yoga has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry, its philosophical depth and cultural roots have often been diluted into fitness-based instruction, creating ethical and representation gaps. We are a nonprofit pioneering the pathway to authentic yogic education in the US by providing unprecedented Government of India Diplomas in Yoga Teacher Training (YTT).
Reclaim
"Sell anything with a photo in seconds."
People have lots of "stuff" in their house that they intend to sell, but are burdened by the effort and decision fatigue actually to go through the listing process. Using image recognition, automation, and AI agents, Reclaim lets users sell anything with just a photo. Simply take a photo of an item, (or multiple items using our premium batch listing feature) and Reclaim automatically recognizes the item(s), then writes the title, description, and determines the pricing. All the user needs to do is click "list on eBay."
Telaloop
"How Can Fashion Fight Poverty? By Reclaiming Waste as Opportunity."
Telaloop is an industrial venture designed to pivot Haiti from being a passive endpoint of global overconsumption to an active leader in the circular economy. Every year, the country is overwhelmed by massive volumes of secondhand clothing that cannot be resold, leading to textile waste clogging canals and landfills. Our solution addresses this by establishing a vertically integrated system that tracks, reclaims, and regenerates these materials. We are developing a digital waste-tracking platform to map accumulation points across local markets, which allows us to treat discarded textiles as a visible resource stream.
To learn more about the Finalists 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 10!
