Introducing Free Ventures’ Batch XV

Last Spring, we showed you how 5 Free Ventures companies were not only adapting to, but actively solving, 2020’s great challenges. This semester, we’re proud to report that Cal students are haven’t stopped building no matter the turbulent times.

We’re proud of our Batch XV teams for sticking through it all. They’re creating technology for sickle cell diagnostics, addressing food waste, and analytics for brick and mortar businesses.

If the companies below interest you, we invite you to join us on December 8th for our Demo Day event, featuring pitches from the below startups and a fireside chat with 8VC investor Alex Moore!

Visit the Free Ventures website to learn more about our current and past batches, and subscribe to FreeV Spotlight for monthly updates and articles about our amazing founders!

KovaDx

KovaDx uses 3D Quantitative Phase imaging to obtain data about cells, which is used in their proprietary deep learning models to build diagnostic tools for sickle cell disease, malaria and blood cancers. They seek to reach underserved communities and address inequities in health care for patients by providing fast, affordable, and accurate diagnosis and monitoring.

Learn more at kovadx.com.

DeWaste

DeWaste provides analytics for food waste. Their product, DeWaste Excess, collects real-time data of food leftovers using computer vision. This data is then used to generate actionable insights which can be used by restaurant managers to reduce food waste by engineering the menu to adapt to customer preferences. Their other product is called DeWaste Kitchen, which reduces errors in food preparation to cut costs in the kitchen.

Learn more at de-waste.com.

Placeware

Placeware equips brick and mortar businesses with automated monitoring of human interaction at their locations, which allows them to better achieve their business goals. Their technology can provide traffic analysis, an understanding of how visitors interact with the physical space, action insights on customer behavior, and trend analysis using heatmaps over weeks and months.

Learn more at placeware.io.

If you’d like to personally get in touch with any of our companies, feel free to reach out to me at shaantam@freeventures.org and I can help set up an introduction.