Clean tech startup BoxPower shone brightly at the fourth annual Princeton-Harvard Business School Startup Showcase. As the winner of the audience vote, BoxPower will be fast-tracked to the final selection round of the Princeton Alumni Angels fall pitch night, and won the opportunity to pitch at an upcoming HBS Alumni Angels of Greater New York pitch night. BoxPower will also receive mentorship from PAA. Medtech startup Sandstone Diagnostics finished in second place. 

A standing room only audience of 200-plus attendees filled the Madison Avenue offices of Yext on a midsummer’s night in early July. Snacking on crudite and gourmet pizza, the crowd watched presentations from a wide range of exciting Princeton-connected tech startups. The showcase was sponsored by Princeton Entrepreneurship Council, Princeton Alumni Angels, HBS Angels of New York, and Princeton Entrepreneurs’ Network, with special vodka tastings courtesy of 1857 Spirits.  

The six startups, in alphabetical order:

BoxPower (clean tech) provides turnkey solar mini grid kits in 20-foot shipping containers as a cost-effective and reliable replacement for diesel generators, winning projects in the last year totaling $1.2 million that both lower rural energy costs and increase energy access. BoxPower is a Princeton Alumni Entrepreneurs Fund portfolio company, as well as an alum of the Keller Center eLab Summer Accelerator. BoxPower was represented by co-founder Anderson Barkow. 

Dotted Square (fin tech) is a global digital marketplace for migrant workers in the EU and US enabling the cashless purchase of necessities in Africa for their families, a $50B+ market. Dotted Square circumvents the flow of money by connecting migrant workers directly with merchants in their native land. Representing Dotted Square was Nii Lokko ’98. 

Sandstone Diagnostics (med tech) deploys powerful centrifugal technology to bring access to diagnostic testing to patients anywhere, anytime. Co-founder and CEO Karen Drexler ’81, also a Keller Center advisory council member, represented Sandstone Diagnostics. 

SiLAS (ed tech) is a patent-pending social emotional learning (SEL) software that allows any K-12 student to demonstrate targeted Social Emotional skill acquisition, presented by practitioners using online lesson plans, through a student-developed real-time animation. Founder and CEO Christopher Dudick presented the company. 

Socionado (ad tech) matches top-tier social media freelancers to brands on a monthly subscription basis. Kofi Frimpong ’11, founder of Socionado, presented the company.  

SPARE (fin tech) is a convenient, easy to use, free way to withdraw cash from various digital wallets and other sources, anywhere and anytime. SPARE’s patented suite of mobile technology transforms your phone into an ATM card, and turns every store’s point-of-sale system into an ATM. Representing SPARE was Michele Sconiers ’96 and Christian Saulnier. 

View photos from the Startup Showcase.