May 15, 2025
iVenture Accelerator announces 2025 cohort
The iVenture Accelerator at Gies College of Business has announced its 2025 cohort, which consists of 37 students representing Gies Business, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, The Grainger College of Engineering, i-School, College of Media, College of Fine & Applied Arts, and the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES).
iVenture Accelerator, a program of the Origin Ventures Office of Entrepreneurship, gives startups a space to scale within the University of Illinois System. It provides teams guidance on obtaining future customer feedback and developing a go-to-market strategy, resources to create a minimum viable product (MVP), mentorship and guidance from alumni, support from other students in the cohort, and connections to a pipeline of Illinois innovation hubs like mHUB and 1871.
"This year’s ventures span cutting-edge fields — from AI-driven healthcare and biotechnology to sustainable food systems, creative economies, and accessible technology,” said Manu Edakara, director of iVenture Accelerator. “Each team exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit, technical excellence, and societal impact that has defined the iVenture community over the last 10 years."
A quick look at the 2025 iVenture cohort:
- ASL Aspire is a game-based online platform that teaches STEM literacy to deaf students in middle school.
- CreatoRain is an AI-powered search platform that helps brands grow organically by accelerating the way they find and partner with high-impact micro-influencers.
- Credence provides affordable green steam, electricity, and hydrogen solutions for industries, cutting carbon footprints with advanced AI-integrated Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology.
- FEAR is a design-led streetwear brand uniting Muslim identity and Western styles through bold collabs, culture-driven drops, and merch that moves communities.
- InvoGenix is developing an AI-powered electronic health record tool that eliminates the burden of medical documentation, so clinicians can focus on quality care, not paperwork.
- Klink! is an AI-driven, dual-sided platform that delivers real-time happy-hour deals and seamless social planning for consumers while equipping bars and restaurants with actionable foot-traffic analytics to boost off-peak revenue.
- Fresh off a third-place finish with a prize of $35,000 at the Cozad New Venture Challenge, kWh Electric enables Indian electricity utilities to prevent blackouts by integrating smart devices –batteries, thermostats, and EV chargers – boosting grid sustainability.
- LaneTrax is bringing professional performance analytics to every bowler, everywhere.
- NoshBox is a surplus food marketplace that empowers local businesses to fight food waste and hunger by allowing customers to purchase fresh meals at affordable prices.
- PhinD creates a dynamic platform that bridges the gap between PhDs and small- to medium-sized companies, facilitating targeted job searches for PhDs and enabling companies to find specialized talent.
- The Sound of Molecules is developing AI-powered tools that accelerate drug discovery by using a musical encoding of molecules to identify promising drug candidates and protein targets.
- Universum is a biotech startup that creates powered upper limb orthosis devices for post-stroke patients to assist in increased range of motion, higher individual carrying capacity, and real-time muscle-controlled activation.
iVenture Accelerator is an intensive program that accelerates growth with a 10-week full-time summer sprint and 11 months of continuous entrepreneurial education throughout the academic year. For change-makers looking to make a positive impact on the world, iVenture provides the necessary resources students need for their startups to succeed, including non-dilutive funding of up to $20,000, free office space, food, access to makerspaces, and exposure to the Chicago entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Over the program’s first ten years, iVenture companies have been incubated in highly respected spaces like Y-Combinator, HAX, and TechStars, have raised more than $160 million, crossed $1 billion in enterprise value (including exits), and have created nearly 1,000 full-time jobs and internships.
About Origin Ventures Office of Entrepreneurship
The Origin Ventures Office of Entrepreneurship (OVOE) at Gies College of Business supports entrepreneurial activities of both on-campus and online learners. OVOE fosters knowledge creation and dissemination from top faculty in the field and designs and offers the curriculum needed to bring that knowledge to the classroom. The office housesthe iVenture Accelerator for top student startups at the University of Illinois, and co-sponsors the Cozad New Venture Challenge, which allows University of Illinois startups to compete for a pool of $500,000 in funding.
About Gies College of Business
Gies College of Business provides a world-class educational experience for the next generation of business leaders. For more than 100 years, the College has delivered on the promise of innovation in business education, with a commitment to cutting-edge curriculum design and delivery, exceptional experiential learning opportunities, and unparalleled academic excellence. Today Gies faculty prepares more than 11,000 on-campus and online learners to be at the forefront of innovation and leadership in the global economy.