The University of Pennsylvania’s Venture Lab has announced the winner of the sixth annual Startup Challenge, sponsored by Eric Aroesty, C’92—ToxiSense, co-founded by a team of four University of Pennsylvania freshmen: Aravind Krishnan, C’25, W’25; Udit Garg, ENG’25; Andrew Diep-Tran, W’25; and Aarush Sahni, C’25. The Startup Challenge was held on April 29, 2022 at Tangen Hall, the University of Pennsylvania’s hub for student entrepreneurship and innovation.

ToxiSense aims to improve the endotoxin testing required for drinking water and biopharma products through genetically engineering plants with bioluminescent properties. Biopharmaceutical products and drinking water must be tested for endotoxins, the sickness-causing molecule from bacteria. The current method relies on expensive horseshoe crab blood and is environmentally damaging. ToxiSense genetically engineered the Arabidopsis plant to luminesce based on the endotoxin concentration applied to it, serving as a sustainable, cost-effective solution. 

ToxiSense was selected from a field of eight finalist teams—including DeToXyFi, Groov, Impact Local, Miren, Nemu, Ossum Technologies, and Shinkei Systems Corp.—who advanced from 30 ventures during the semi-finals portion of the competition, which consisted of a day of virtual pitching and Q&A in front of alumni entrepreneur and investor panels. For the finals, teams pitched to a panel of alumni judges and in front of a live audience of nearly 200 attendees as they competed for over $150,000 in cash and prizes to launch their startups.

“The Startup Challenge is Venture Lab’s premier yearly event, showcasing Penn’s most promising teams of student entrepreneurs,” said Lori Rosenkopf, Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship and Simon and Midge Palley Professor at the Wharton School. “This year’s finalists included undergraduate and graduate students from across the University, and their products offered solutions for environmental, financial, health, and social challenges. These motivated teams capture the spirit of Penn entrepreneurship—innovative, interdisciplinary, inclusive—and we offer our congratulations and our optimistic wishes for their futures!”

For the first time in three years, the Startup Challenge was held in-person in Tangen Hall, the University’s newest hub for student entrepreneurship and innovation. The 68,000 square foot facility is the largest hub of any kind on any college campus dedicated to student entrepreneurship and innovation. 

“This was an opportunity to invite the larger entrepreneurial community into our new home at Tangen Hall,” said Erin McGowan, senior associate director of Venture Lab. “We had positive feedback from the teams, alumni judges and attendees in being able to gather together again and showcase our outstanding student ventures.”

The Startup Challenge marks the end to another exciting year of entrepreneurship across the Penn community. Students engaged in entrepreneurial programming are founding, developing, and scaling companies utilizing the multitude of resources available within the Penn and Philadelphia ecosystems. Venture Lab is proud to continue to be a leader in entrepreneurship education.