SU Companies

Getaround, a car sharing marketplace where individuals can offer their own cars for rent, started as a Energy Team Project in the inaugural Graduate Studies Program of 2009 – anticipating the advent of robotic cars. As TechCrunch Disrupt NYC 2011 Winners, Getaround aims at matching urban dwellers without cars and car owners looking to make some extra cash. In addition to changing legislation in two states to make it easier for car-owners to share their cars, Getaround is now the largest peer-to-peer car sharing service in the space. They provide insurance, 24 hour roadside assistance, a car-kit, an iPhone and Web app (which lets you conveniently locate, access, and unlock the car you’re renting without ever having to see its owner).

Appitude provides a software platform that allows publishers to distribute their digital content in the form of applications for mobile devices like iPhone, iPad and Android platform. Appitude provides a social reading experience along with an interactive rewards system that enhances user engagement. The company was founded by Vj Anma, an SU Alum from the inaugural Graduate Studies program. Inspired by the 10^9+ Team Projects at SU, Appitude’s vision is “To positively impact the reading habits of at least one billion people in the next ten years.”

Escape Dynamics, LLC was founded in the spring of 2010 with the goal of developing and bringing to market technologies necessary to open space for large scale commercial, social and scientific exploration through developing novel means of space propulsion & transportation. The main area of focus of Escape Dynamics is fundamental research in new launch concepts and in new materials for space exploration. Co-founded by Dmitriy Tseliakhovich, Ph.D. candidate at Caltech and GSP10 Alum.

CiviGuard is dedicated to changing the current emergency communications landscape by bringing location-aware, cloud-based and smart phone-optimized services to metropolitan citizens the world over. As a team project from the augural summer of Singularity University’s Graduate Studies Program, Civiguard (formerly XIDAR Systems), strove to develop mobile phone applications and portable medical technologies to assist civilians and officials alike in crisis, disaster and pandemic situations. Their original application allowed individuals to receive integrated, reliable information from local authorities and qualified professionals to find safety, aid and resources – painting a comprehensive picture of the ground situation in times of crisis.

As Start Up Chile Winners, GSP10 Water Team Project H2020 strives to improve public knowledge about water issues in slums, increase the efficiency with which information is gathered and published, and stimulate implementation of scalable solutions. Their Water Poverty Initiative uses mobile devices to collect data on water quantity, quality, access and price in communities. They combine this “crowdsourced” information with data from other sources (like water poverty reports and satellite images) and publish it using a map-based format. Their mapping projects also uses smart phones to capture, analyze and publish real time data at a watershed level, raising involvement in conservation, improving data management for corporations, and fostering better per-dollar returns on policies relating to watershed management.

MADE IN SPACE, a venture from SU’s 2010 Graduate Studies Program, is dedicated to providing print on demand solutions for manufacturing in space. Upon the successful completion of testing 3D printers in zero-gravity, several objects were printed in a simulated space environment optimized for complete strength-to-mass ratio. The advantages of 3D printing include limited material waste, the ability to build complex geometries, immediate production time, and minimal human involvement. They hope to revolutionize the way we currently look at space exploration, commercialization, and mission design. For the flight, MADE IN SPACE partnered with Autodesk, a world leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, who provided software and techniques to optimize space-based design principles for practical applications.

BioMine, a venture from SU’s 2010 Graduate Studies Program, recently won Harvard Business School’s second annual Alumni New Venture Contest. Their team is focused on building a pilot to demonstrate the extraction of valuable metals from discarded electronics. Using existing scaled-up mining industry technologies, they hope to capture value from the 40 million tons of “e-waste” that is landfilled or incinerated annually around the world, containing 70 billion dollars worth of precious and base metals. BioMine addresses the fundamental issue of mining instead of recycling “accelerating waste” in a world of exponential technologies and exponential obsolescence.