Student Accelerator
The Emergence Student Accelerator Program supports a cohort of highly driven student entrepreneurs each year, advancing their ability to tackle systemic health challenges through preventive medicine and impact-driven innovation.
By integrating immersive impact entrepreneurship workshops, coaching from experienced founders, one-on-one mentorship from industry professionals, and facilitated connections with potential investors, students are equipped to ideate, develop, and launch innovations that improve health outcomes and address the root causes of chronic illness.
Graduates receive a Certificate of Completion in Impact Entrepreneurship from Emergence, recognizing their achievement in developing innovations that advance preventive, inclusive, and systems-oriented approaches to health.
The program includes the following core components:
Students learn and apply the fundamentals of impact entrepreneurship to their ventures. Example topics include Transformational Leadership, Aligning Business Models with Impact, Ownership & Governance Structures, and Raising Mission-Aligned Capital.
Each student is paired with a successful founder who provides tailored guidance and regular support throughout the program to troubleshoot challenges and accelerate venture development.
Students are connected to professionals relevant to their venture’s focus, providing feedback, guidance, and networking to refine and scale solutions.
Students gain facilitated connections to mission aligned investors and funders within the Emergence network and pitch at an annual Demo Day, with eligibility for a small seed award to support launch and growth.
Students build relationships with like-minded innovators, fostering collaboration, knowledge sharing, and long-term support networks.
Students are connected to a network of private and public sector partners and gain visibility through various events such as socials, the Demo Day, and related conferences or pitch events.
Accelerator Coach Profiles
Application Process
- Application Period:
- Applications for the 2026 Cohort will be open Oct. 1st – Nov. 20th, 2025.
- Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis
- Interviews will be held Dec. 1st-12th, 2025
- Selected applicants will be notified the week of Dec. 15th, 2025
- The cohort will start the program at the beginning of Winter Quarter 2026
- Eligibility: Students across disciplines developing innovations that address systemic drivers of health—such as access to healthcare, food security, nutrition, housing, education, or environmental impacts—are encouraged to apply. Applicants should demonstrate entrepreneurial fundamentals, deep understanding of their focus area, and bring diverse perspectives to the cohort. While the program is primarily aimed at graduate students (Masters, PhD) and Postdocs, highly qualified undergraduates may also apply.
Impact
Innovations launched
“The program transformed the trajectory of my impact venture, equipping me with vital industry connections and expert mentorship that readied me for launching my impact venture after graduation.” - 2024 Cohort
Example Student Projects
Allswell
Allswell focuses on bridging gaps in mental and behavioral health care for LGBTQ+ young adults, assisting them in exploring identity and transitioning before crisis situations arise. The platform offers culturally-competent group teletherapy and digital journaling tools tailored to individual goals and needs. Allswell prioritizes affordability, accessibility, and support, aiming to create a solution that effectively addresses the unique challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community.
Vanilla AI
Vanilla AI is a software platform at the intersection of climate tech, AI, and fintech, that enables energy efficiency in buildings at scale. Today real estate alone accounts for a third of US greenhouse gas emissions and low income, disadvantaged communities are more likely to suffer from health issues due to climate change. Vanilla evaluates buildings at scale and automates financing, to accelerate clean tech adoption. Vanilla's platform targets owners of real estate assets.
OLEO SPOS
Oleo SPOS is pioneering a process to create a sustainable, deforestation-free, lab-grown alternative to palm oil. This innovative approach involves fermenting microorganisms to generate synthetic oil and includes two significant technical breakthroughs. Additionally, Oleo is designing a system that engages directly with smallholders in producing nations, helping to sustain the economic backbone of local communities. By focusing on sustainability and community support, Oleo aims to transform palm oil production while preserving local livelihoods.
RESET
RESET is establishing a mission-driven fintech company focused on developing financial products for low-income, blue-collar, and gig workers. Its initial offering aims to empower working Americans by modernizing payroll, the most crucial financial transaction for low-income individuals. This innovation seeks to enhance financial health by minimizing reliance on costly loan alternatives and overdraft fees. By prioritizing accessibility and stability, RESET aspires to support the financial well-being of underrepresented workers in today's economy.
Hydrosun Technologies
Hydrosun Technologies leverages the power of voluntary carbon markets and renewable technologies to provide clean water to millions in need. The company delivers water filtration units to over 150 villages across 6 countries, utilizing its innovative OASIS Box™, a transportable solar-powered device that can be customized to meet local water filtration needs. This integrated approach offers a more effective, sustainable, and cost-efficient solution for partners and communities.
Flex Therapeutics
Flex Therapeutics is tackling urgent global health challenges through AI-powered drug discovery. Traditional pharmaceutical development cycles are slow and expensive, making it difficult to address emerging threats like antibiotic resistance and viral epidemics. By combining AI models with modular chemical synthesis, Flex Therapeutics seeks to rapidly and cost-effectively develop innovative medicines. Promising results include novel antibiotics and less addictive pain treatments.
Precision Medicine
DART-Met is creating a revolutionary platform for early liver disease diagnostics, focusing on metabolic dysfunction-associated conditions and GLP-1 therapy monitoring. Our solution integrates advanced biosensing with AI-driven analysis to provide a non-invasive, rapid, and affordable point-of-care diagnostic tool. DART-Met aims to empower healthcare providers with actionable insights for timely interventions across various liver conditions. By addressing under-diagnosis and limited access to comprehensive screening, DART-Met has the potential to transform liver disease management.
LacTrax is a subcutaneous sensor that monitors lactate levels in the interstitial fluid of postoperative pediatric patients, a key biomarker for low cardiac output syndrome (LCOS). LCOS, a common complication following heart surgery, can lead to severe health issues such as organ failure if undiagnosed. By providing real-time data, LacTrax supports early diagnosis and management, aiming to improve outcomes and reduce complications in vulnerable pediatric populations.
Flex Therapeutics is a Stanford spin-out leveraging advanced computational technologies to develop safer, more accessible medicines for blockbuster indications. Our innovative platform designs highly precise and selective small molecules targeting cryptic pockets and specific protein states, aimed at reducing side effects or providing alternatives to costly antibody therapies. Our lead program targets chronic pain and migraine, building on a cryptic pocket and lead molecule discovered by our team at Stanford and recently published in Nature.
Healthcare Access
In the face of record-high staffing shortages and unprecedented overcrowding in ERs nationwide, patient care and clinical efficiency are compromised right from entry. These challenges lead to critical information gaps, stemming from rushed, inadequate triage processes, prolonged wait times during which patients remain unmonitored and unattended, and discharge delays. Vita Innovations provides an integrated care automation platform for ERs, delivering operational intelligence to streamline patient data intake at triage, reduce discharge delays, and enhance clinical efficiency through seamless care coordination.
Penguin Health is developing workflow automation and care coordination tools for under-resourced FQHCs, CBOs, and CCBHCs that serve the nation's most vulnerable patients. The platform streamlines administrative tasks, improves patient engagement, and helps unlock funding and reimbursement. Penguin Health aims to enable these organizations to operate at higher efficiency, deliver better outcomes, and scale their impact.
Equipoise is a smartphone app that improves how you walk through real-time monitoring, feedback and personalized exercise prescription c) Gait stability declines after age 50, contributing to falls in 30% of adults over 65, resulting in $80 billion in healthcare costs. Traditional physical therapy can be inconvenient and inaccessible, but Equipoise, a smartphone app, measures gait asymmetries and offers real-time audio and visual feedback as well as personalized exercise prescription. Users can improve walking stability and confidence through training sessions, progress tracking, and goal-setting from home, promoting healthier aging.
Peachy Day is the first integrative migraine care app to support patients with medical & lifestyle treatments across decades of living with disability—starting with AI-powered headache tracking. According to the WHO, migraines are the second most common disability in the world, affecting 1B+ people worldwide and 1 in 5 American women. Instead of years-long delay in care, Peachy Day fast-tracks patients from first attack to effective treatment, supporting them across decades of disability.
MedHug is making medications more affordable and accessible by helping healthcare providers easily navigate prescription coverage. MedHug's innovative approach assists healthcare professionals in swiftly identifying and prescribing the most cost-effective medication options. The MedHug platform ensures that patients receive optimal care without the burden of high medication costs.
With Reset’s Earned Wage Access (EWA) solution, financial institutions can launch a next-gen card that combines free daily access to earned wages with auto-budgeting, and address the liquidity needs of the 67% of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck. Banks and credit unions foster greater financial health, while driving deposit growth, +50-80% more revenue than debit transactions, and 10-20x higher yield on assets than their cost of capital.
Food as Medicine
NutriLink is an AI-powered platform transforming how healthcare addresses food insecurity, a critical social determinant of health. Seamlessly integrating with electronic medical records (EMRs), NutriLink identifies at-risk patients and connects them with localized food resources and assistance programs in real time through a closed-loop referral process. By bridging the gap between clinical care and vital community resources, NutriLink improves patient outcomes, reduces healthcare costs, and advances health equity at scale, it improves patient outcomes, reduces healthcare costs, and advances health equity at scale.
Frontdoor is an end-to-end application and recertification tool for SNAP (i.e. food stamps). We make it simple and easy for low-income families to access food assistance and unlock billions in unclaimed revenue for grocers and EBT retailers.
Environmental Health
DropSense closes the nitrogen management gap to secure cleaner water. DropSense's innovative platform simultaneously detects key nitrogen pollutants (ammonium, nitrate, and nitrous oxide), and transforms the data into proactive, actionable insights for ensuring water pollution and emission compliance, while delivering unmatched accuracy with minimal labor input. Hydrosun Technologies is combining the power of voluntary carbon markets (VCM) with purpose-built renewable technologies to serve clean water to millions in need.
Magnefy is a Stanford spin-out pioneering an edge AI-powered, high-frequency magnetic sensing platform for real-time predictive maintenance of critical power assets like transformers, switchgear, and generators. Our $500 non-invasive IoT solution captures 250× more low-noise, high-frequency data—accurately detecting failures like partial discharge and higher harmonics weeks to months in advance, at one-tenth the cost of legacy systems. We help mission-critical facilities—data centers, IPPs, utilities, and manufacturers—avoid outages, boost reliability, and maximize power efficiency.
Hydrosun Technologies is combining the power of voluntary carbon markets (VCM) with purpose-built renewable technologies to serve clean water to millions in need.
PangeAI is the Canva for spatial data—an AI-powered platform that makes spatial land, climate, and nature data accessible to non-technical users through natural language. Today’s geospatial tools are complex, fragmented, and built for experts. PangeAI replaces slow, consultant-led workflows with an intuitive AI interface, enabling sustainability teams, consultants, and climate investors to ask spatial questions and get instant, actionable answers. PangeAI is building the spatial intelligence layer for climate and nature decision-making—starting with land-use, biodiversity, and restoration planning.
Vanilla AI is an AI co-pilot that enables sales and installation for clean-tech OEMs and contractors. Selling and installing clean-tech today is expensive and slow as it requires many non-repeatable activities. Vanilla AI makes selling and installing clean-tech repeatable, increasing sales velocity for businesses, and improving energy efficiency for consumers.
Mizu is a climate enterprise software startup, offering next-generation water risk analytics for agricultural banks and asset owners. It integrates water and temperature projections to evaluate risk exposures for agriculture financiers, asset owners, food & ag businesses, inputs suppliers, and farmers. The climate risk analysis platform integrates advanced modeling and simulation technologies across climate, water, crop, and finance, immediately deployable for food company CXOs, ag-focused investors, and farmland owners managing agricultural assets along the food supply chain.
Spect AI is a web platform that helps the construction industry reduce waste and deliver projects on time by automatically reviewing building products against design documents to ensure they meet requirements before procurement. In the US, new construction produces 60 million tons of material waste each year largely due to inaccurate material/product procurement and rework due to construction mistakes. Spect AI’s platform allows engineers and contractors to catch mistakes before materials are ordered, and therefore reduce waste and money lost to rework.
At Oleo we transform biomass waste into high quality oil products with applications ranging from personal care ingredients to sustainable aviation fuel. Our technology, developed at Stanford University and patent-pending, is uniquely flexible and efficient, enabling Oleo to compete at price parity in commodity markets unlike many other biosynthetic oils. We have the support of organizations such as the Department of Energy LEEP, Activate, the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy and have received funding from Alpine Social Ventures, Safar Partners, Collaborative Fund, and G-Force.
Understory’s platform turns aerial imagery into biodiversity intelligence by applying AI to drone and satellite imagery to map plant species, composition, and change over time, c)Understory is building biodiversity intelligence for a changing planet. Our vegetation mapping platform transforms raw imagery into actionable insights about biodiversity down to species level, land cover, and ecosystem change - enabling smarter decisions across conservation, development, and climate resilience. We've launched the platform, demonstrated its value in challenges ranging from mitigation monitoring to wildfire and biodiversity assessment, and are piloting with leading conservation and utility partners.
AI Merch, is a computer vision technology revolutionizing the food and retail industry. The company's mission is to reduce waste, promote sustainability, and ensure resource security, particularly in the food sector. AI Merch offers advanced analytics capabilities to consumer goods businesses, providing real-time intelligence to operate more efficiently.
Behavioral Health
SignUp is a media-accessibility tool providing sign language interpretation for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing on streaming and educational platforms. Developed with the Deaf community, it enhances accessibility for an underserved group. With 432 million people (5%) worldwide identifying as Deaf or Hard of Hearing, SignUp gained 20,000 website visitors at launch and now serves 25,000 weekly active users across the US, UK, India, and Canada on platforms like Disney+ and Netflix. To support scalability, we are developing a cutting-edge AI model trained on SignUp’s proprietary database—the largest collection of sign language interpretations in the world—enabling high-accuracy, real-time interpretation across multiple sign languages.
Journify Learning is the AI assistant for special education that maximizes the efficiency and effectiveness of every special educator. It saves teachers time, drives student outcomes through evidence-based practices, and strengthens district compliance with centralized data tracking and reporting.
Started by a team from the Stanford Graduate School of Education, Journify is now used by districts across California, Colorado, Washington, and Wisconsin—supporting over 7,000 IEP goals for 1,600+ students. Teachers report saving 50% of their time and rate the quality of instructional supports at 9.5/10.
Certified by Digital Promise as a Responsibly Designed AI solution, Journify supports the full special education lifecycle across three key dimensions: compliance, student outcomes through evidence-based practices, and staff efficiency & satisfaction.
Avanza Education is a tech-enabled social impact venture that transforms college access for undocumented students. Undocumented individuals face unique financial, legal, and sociocultural barriers to higher education, resulting in only five percent of undocumented students graduating from college. Avanza tackles this problem by delivering a virtual, cohort-based college-access advising curriculum that is family-focused, research-backed, and specifically tailored to the needs of undocumented students. Our holistic approach equips students to pursue affordable higher education and break intergenerational cycles of poverty and precarity.
Mi Tribu is a digital platform to support parenthood from fertility, through pregnancy and postpartum into early childhood, by matching groups of 12 women in the same stage of motherhood with the support and guidance of a healthcare specialist through group chat and one-to-one video calls. This enables growing families to access medical and emotional support cheaply whenever and wherever they need it.
Allswell combines proven clinical models with group-based care, AI-supported tools, and moderated digital communities to drive better outcomes at lower cost for LGBTQ+ people who are often overlooked by traditional systems. Our platform is designed to meet people where they are, expanding access through Medicaid as well as commercial plans and creating a trusted destination for holistic healthcare.
Fill Health brings board-certified wellness coaching to K–12 students to tackle the youth mental health crisis at scale. c) Founded by former educators and happiness researchers turned Stanford MBAs, Fill Health delivers research-backed, stigma-free coaching that empowers students to meet their wellbeing goals. Our AI-powered telehealth platform ensures every student—regardless of location or income—can access tailored support rooted in the science of happiness, health, and habits.