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Sobotka Seed Prize for Sustainable Ventures: The 2021 Winners

The Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) is delighted to announce the winners of the 2021 Sobotka Seed Prize for Sustainable Ventures.

CBEY supports students in building sustainable, for-profit businesses. A huge part of this has been via the Sobotka Seed Prize for Sustainable Ventures.  Since 2011, the Sobotka Family has supported entrepreneurs and innovative thinkers who want to address the needs of both the market and the planet, giving two $10,000 awards annually.

This year, the Sobotka Seed Prize for Sustainable Ventures focused on solutions in four key areas of urgent action:

  • Protecting and restoring ecosystems and biodiversity
  • Food, agriculture and land use
  • Energy use, efficiency and access
  • Materials and waste

After a competitive and selective process, the two winners of this year's Sobotka Prize include a platform that helps with the transition towards a plant-based diet and a supplier of lotus silk. 

David Sobotka (BA ’78) is currently a CBEY advisory board member and offers mentorship to students as they build their ideas into companies. "The entrepreneurial ecosystem that is developing solutions for specific environmental challenges continues to thrive at Yale, exemplified by the winners of this year's grants,” said Sobotka.  “We look forward to tracking the progress of GreenBowl and WovX as their ideas take shape."