WindLoop and Verustruct win 2024 Sobotka Seed Prize for Sustainable Ventures
The Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) is delighted to announce the winners of the 2024 Sobotka Seed Prize for Sustainable Ventures.
CBEY supports students in building sustainable businesses that are solving some of our planet’s biggest problems through advising students and connecting them to sources of funding. A huge part of this has been via the Sobotka Seed Prize for Sustainable Ventures; since 2011, David Sobotka and his family have supported entrepreneurs and innovative thinkers at Yale who want to address the needs of both the market and the planet, giving two $10,000 awards annually.
This year’s Sobotka Seed Prize for Sustainable Ventures focused on solutions in four key areas of urgent action:
- Materials and waste
- Protecting and restoring ecosystems and biodiversity
- Food, agriculture and land use sustainability
- Energy use, efficiency and access
After receiving and reviewing submissions from 10 amazing teams from across Yale, we selected two winner’s for this year’s Sobotka Prize.
Verustruct (formerly known as Impact3D)
Nick Callegari (SOM), Bianca Taya (YSPH), Konstantinos Markopoulos (YC), and Aarav Ghandi (YC) are working on Verustruct to develop a novel construction 3D printer technology that creates sustainable, affordable housing for those experiencing housing insecurity. The patent pending technology eliminates the need for a support gantry, routes electrical harnessing and plumbing within the walls, and utilizes upcycled filaments to reduce material cost and create carbon-negative structures.
The WindLoop team, comprised of Shubh Jain (YSE), Courtney Megerian (YSE), Dylan Judd (YSE), and Joseph Toman, is building a solution to improve circularity for wind energy, starting by recycling end-of-life wind turbine blades in a cost-efficient and sustainable way, potentially diverting millions of tons of waste from landfills.
Thank you to our judges
The CBEY team is very grateful for the team of judges that participated in this process to help select teams and give feedback to all participants.
Nate Salpeter Nate is a general partner at SNØCAP, an emerging climate innovation fund focused on investing in companies driving change in the alternative protein, agriculture technology, and sustainability sectors, where he leverages his expertise as an active advisor and investor in these fields.
Eric Rubenstein (YC ’04) is Founding Manager Partner at New Climate Ventures, focused on carbon reduction and avoidance which includes but is not limited to food/ag tech, climate tech, and circular economy.
Kiko Wong (YC ‘22) is an investor at Lowercarbon Capital and a founding team member of ClimateHaven.
Anastasia O’Rourke (PhD, ‘08) is Managing Director at the Carbon Containment Lab and a lecturer at the Yale School of the Environment. She has previously worked as a consultant, entrepreneur, and researcher in Australia, Sweden, France and the US.
Logan Yonavjak (SOM, YSE ‘16) is a social entrepreneur, author, and angel investor with a focus on alternative investments in agriculture and forestry.