Gummy Sports Chews, AI Tools for Business, Yoga-Inspired Products. Meet the 2024 i.Lab Incubator Ventures

The University of Virginia’s i.Lab Incubator this summer introduced a new format, new funding sources and a record number of teams. What hasn’t changed? The incubator’s ability to attract and nurture an array of innovators with intriguing products, technologies and services.

A few examples:

• A new line of tasty energy chews for athletes.
• A database that connects parents with important updates from their child’s college.
• Therapeutic video games for children and adolescents suffering from mental health issues.

“This year’s ventures once again highlight the innovation and creativity of our young entrepreneurs,” said Jason Brewster, i.Lab Incubator director. “Helping them grow these business ideas and seeing them succeed beyond the i.Lab Incubator remains the most exciting and rewarding part.”

Hosted by the Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology at the UVA Darden School of Business, the incubator provides a goal-oriented, guided-learning program for both student and alumni entrepreneur teams of one to three founders.

The annual program, established in 2000, has more than doubled since last summer with an expanded curriculum, additional workshops, practitioner talks and mentoring sessions. The growth is due in part to the support of the Pan-University Entrepreneurship Initiative and participating UVA schools, which have contributed additional funding and other resources to the 2024 program.

Of the 28 teams, five represent UVA alumni ventures, and 23 ventures are founded by students from Darden, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the College of Arts and Sciences, the McIntire School of Commerce and the School of Nursing.

Incubator participants receive grant funding; access workshops led by Darden faculty and practitioners, online resources and legal support; engage in mentorship sessions with experienced founders and industry experts; and are eligible to apply for the Kathryne Carr Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence.

Also new is this year’s program format, which has evolved to be “remote-first.” During the eight virtual weeks of the incubator, teams meet over Zoom with Entrepreneurs in Residence, who support four or five ventures each, work directly with a dedicated mentor, and participate in regular check-ins with program leadership as they make progress toward agreed upon goals.

Teams also gather in-person for two intensive workshop sessions in June and July plus a gathering in August in the UVA Rotunda for a “Demo Showcase” with final pitches from each of the ventures and remarks from Caren Merrick, the Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade.

“This has been a transformational experience for me. So many of my educational experiences are clicking into place,” said Darden part-time MBA student Maxwell Godwin (Class of 2025), founder of the new venture Banyan Home.

2024 i.Lab Incubator Ventures

Acceleration Backpacks: An automated backpack that provides accessibility for all. Via an internal motor system and Bluetooth remote, users can independently lift and lower backpacks without exerting any force.

Acute XR: Fun, therapeutic video games for children and adolescents suffering from mental health issues.

Ality Health: Makes it easy to get an opinion from a board-certified specialist in a low-cost and quick way. Have a question you forgot to ask your doctor? Nervous about an upcoming procedure? Hear what other doctors think.

Amphibian AI: Specializes in a technology called “knowledge graphs” which boosts the quality and real-life applicability of these AI systems, facilitating reliable AI adoption for businesses.

Banyan Home: A single platform that guides you through every aspect of home ownership. From maintenance and interior design to finance, appliance repair, and home projects, the vision is to seamlessly integrate these resources into one comprehensive application.

bool.: A social networking platform for making authentic, face-to-face connections – think Pokémon Go for making friends. When a user logs into the app, they can see and interact with other users in their immediate radius.

College Reporting: An online database for parents of college students to access important information and student life updates from their child’s university.

Dulia: A men’s brand honoring the saints of the Catholic Church through strong, but subtle, masculine apparel.

Ethiopian Delights: Brings the rich and diverse flavors of Ethiopian cuisine to a global audience by offering instant, ready-to-eat meals inspired by traditional dishes.

EZ-EAP: An emergency action plan app that aids athletic staff in ensuring the safety of all athletes, by increasing access to EAPs, decreasing response time of medical personnel, and minimizing common shortfalls in athletic emergencies.

Fairway to Green: An equitable sports media company whose mission is to increase visibility and funding in women’s sports.

Grapevine: A unique approach that leverages resources within institutions to provide students with a comprehensive ecosystem that personalizes academic planning, career acceleration and future employer-to-student relationships.

Hathr AI: A private, secure AI tool used to deploy safe artificial intelligence as a managed service or licensed software for organizations to build out their own specialized AI tools.

Junk Labz: A full-process recycler offering collection, sorting, shredding, melting and production for polypropylene, as well as sustainable business consulting services.

Lame Supplements: A health and wellness company aimed at solving the fiber deficiency in young-adult Americans by offering portable fiber and gut-adjacent solutions, such as powders and capsules containing fiber, prebiotics and probiotics for on-the-go individuals.

Métopi: A pharma company that develops health care solutions, such as the “portahaler,” a smaller, more portable rescue inhaler that makes carrying a rescue inhaler less invasive.

MingleMoney: A peer-to-peer microlending platform where borrowers and lenders come together to build financial futures, providing seamless transactions, personalized lending opportunities, and a supportive community.

Moment: An app to document favorite memories on one timeline using pictures, video and text.

Nature Buff: A sustainable products company that puts a unique spin on outdated and non-eco-friendly daily-use items. Its flagship product is an unscented biodegradable travel-sized shampoo and body soap bar sewn in an organic “buff” mesh material.

Noogs: Produces sports nutrition products that athletes will actually look forward to eating. The flagship sour energy chews taste like your favorite sour gummy candy.

Partnerships for Strategic Impact: Offers program evaluation and other data support to small and medium-sized nonprofits and their funders. The innovative ImpactStory Strategy is a straightforward, sustainable solution for tracking mission fulfillment, refining programs, co-learning across the sector and telling engaging stories.

Recruister: Helps technical recruiters find more candidates, faster. Organize and understand skills, discover alternate keywords, and instantly build boolean searches for LinkedIn and other job sites.

Savasan: Aims to infuse the principles and postures of yoga into products that promote relaxation and enhance self-care rituals. The debut product is a pillow that supports recovery and stillness for deep relaxation.

Sprowl: Empowers small businesses with affordable, innovative tools designed to enhance efficiency and simplify workforce management.

The Clearly Collective: A quiet luxury design agency and brand specializing in designing silk scarves for colleges and destinations inspired by the community’s architecture. The agency designs and manufactures specialty items for major luxury brand gifting programs and brand activations.

Tiliti Foods: Creates food solutions for women with polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis and other metabolic disorders to promote hormonal balance and help manage symptoms. Its first products are packaged snacks catered to reduce inflammation and promote the healthy production of key hormones in women: estrogen and progesterone.

VuGru: A project management platform designed for digital creators. It integrates video and photo sharing, file transfer and client interaction into a single, intuitive system. Streamlines media management and collaboration, ensuring that project files and communications are centralized and easily accessible.

YellowRed: A simple college safety app made by students for students.

Find more details about the ventures and their founders at the Batten Institute site.