On April 27th, 2018 two of FarShore’s partners, Impowerus and Explore Interactive, competed in the final round of the McClosky New Venture Challenge at the University of Notre Dame. The competition started in November 2017 when they, along with hundreds of other new venture groups, submitted an extensive application including an executive summary. Upon acceptance, the ventures submitted a detailed business plan and finally presented in the semi-final and final rounds April 26-27th.
Impowerus is an online platform to connect young immigrants with pro bono legal aid. Their primary goal is to help young immigrants successfully navigate the complicated immigration and naturalization process while assisting lawyers to maximize efficiency. Without ever leaving their office, attorneys can connect with juveniles through the video chat platform, allowing them to help clients more effectively and with greater ease. Impowerus wants to change our current system and provide immigrant youth a fighting chance.
During the final rounds of competition Impowerus presented using the designed screens our highly-awarded design team created and they received the most money in startup grants, by winning the following three awards:
- Horvath Communications Best Women Owned Venture
- Klau Family Prize for Greatest Social Impact
- Best Collaborative Venture award
“For the Impowerus team, receiving three awards from the McCloskey New Venture Competition truly means that we have worked to establish ourselves as a company that cares about our community and our cause.” Katelyn Ringrose (Founder/CEO)
Explore Interactive democratizes access to and improves educational outcomes in STEM, through immersive, educational games anywhere, anytime and at a great price. Their first product, due out this summer, will bring together the delight of tabletop card games and the immersion of their augmented reality technology to build excitement for and expertise in the world of STEM. Explore! brings inquiry-based learning to the world of augmented reality through educational games. Their experiences engage Explorers through a visual, auditory and tactile learning environment to progress through standards-based curricula. Whether a tinkerer, competitor, or social player, Explore! has something for everyone!
Explore was awarded the Schurz Innovation Prize, valued at $30,000 ($20,000 in cash and $10,000 in marketing). They plan to use this funding to support their efforts for a public product launch on June 1, 2018. We are excited to be partnering with Explore to develop the backend of this intuitive, educational, and interactive tool that is sure to excel in the classrooms.
“We were excited to participate in the McCloskey New Venture Competition and meet some incredible innovators from the Notre Dame community!” Wesley Virt (Founder)
Both Impowerus and Explore had very positive things to say about the McClosky New Venture Competition and each had very successful outcomes. We are proud to be working alongside these outstanding new ventures and passionate entrepreneurs.
