The Khan Family AI for Business Award
Wharton AI & Analytics Initiative is proud to partner with Venture Lab to offer the Khan Family AI for Business Award for the Startup Challenge. These monetary awards are given to the teams that best exemplify the usage of innovative artificial intelligence in their business model.
Previous Winners
2025 Winner
KAL Robotics
KAL Robotics uses autonomous mobile robots and 3D digital twins to provide real-time warehouse inventory analytics and space optimization, improving accuracy and operational efficiency without requiring costly infrastructure changes.
Tejendra Patel, GEN’25; Kevin Paulose, GEN’25
2025 Winner
Sync Labs
Sync Labs builds AI-driven tools for senior care. Using proprietary vision tech, Alice, we detect key behaviors—like bathroom trips, meals, and medication—without recording video. Real-time activity insights paired with health data boost custom care.
Melanie Herbert, EE’25
2024 Winner
Jochi
Jochi is an integrated management platform that enables secondary schools to effectively identify and support neurodiverse learners, ensuring no student is left behind.
Yash Dhir, SEAS’24; Rahul Nambiar, SEAS’24
2024 Winner
Walnut Research
Walnut Research is an Artificial Intelligence evaluation company for developers of large language models that standardizes and streamlines the evaluation process from foundational to multi-step models.
Alex Kim, W’26; Bruce Lee, SEAS’26; Aiden Lee, SAS’26
2023 Winner
EmployAI
EmployAI is a decision intelligence platform for e-commerce executives. This tool harnesses the power of no-code machine learning to provide actionable strategic insights in boardroom-ready slides and an interactive dashboard. EmployAI is the perfect solution for professionals who may not have a technical background in data analytics, but hope to benefit from the insights and recommendations it can produce.
Tara Balakrishnan, WG’23, Amelia Cohen, WG’23
2023 Winner
Groov
Groov uses modern technology and a consumer-focused approach to provide users with high-end, fully customized shoe inserts called Groovs. Following instructions from Groov, customers can utilize depth-mapping camera functions available on Apple mobile devices to get a perfect 3D scan of their foot. Groov then uses that data to craft a perfect Groov and deliver it within seven days.
Daniel Cataldi, WG’23
2023 Winner
PopEye
PopEye is the world’s first autonomous anchor-monitoring system for large commercial vessels. At the intersection of mechanical design, electronics, and computer vision, our “camera-in-a-box” both solves the problem of anchor loss, malfunction, and danger, and takes the first step toward fully autonomous, more sustainable anchoring.
Nicholas Anderson ENG’23, Orestis Skoutellas, ENG’23 GEN’23 W’23, Jacob “Rocco” Bendell, ENG’23, Mario Ferre, ENG’23, Benjamin Abt, ENG’23 GEN’24
2022 Winner
PitchPrez
PitchPrez is an AI-speech coach that analyzes user-submitted videos to evaluate posture, enunciation, and more, and provides recommendations for improvement.
Jack Zhang, C’24, Alice Liu, Jack Lee
2022 Winner
Shinkei Systems Corp.
Shinkei Systems builds robotics minimize fish waste and multiply shelf-life. From 1.2B lbs caught every day, as little as 1 in 3 fish make it to a plate; we can save the fishing industry more than $50B annually.
Saif Khawaja, W’21, G’23
2021 Winner
Félix
Félix Pago is a chat-based platform for sending money from the United States to Spanish-speaking countries abroad.
Bernardo Garcia, WG’21, Manuel Godoy, WG’21