Anup Gosavi MBA’13 Wins IAN Global Startup Competition
On December 15, three Babson founders took their startups to the global stage in the Indian Angel Network Global Startup Competition. As the competition drew to a close, Anup Gosavi MBA’13 was crowned the winner.
Gosavi is co-founder of Spext, a technology that turns recorded voice content into useful, editable content. IAN will pursue diligence with Gosavi for an equity investment of $250,000 from IAN’s members and IAN Fund.
This past fall, Babson students, alumni, faculty, staff, and parents were invited to apply to pitch their startups ready for angel funding to IAN. Applications came from startups located worldwide and in many different industries, due in large part to Babson’s global student and alumni base.
Gosavi was one of three finalists that pitched in the virtual finale. He was joined by Ryan Lupberger ’18, CEO and co-founder, cleancult; and Shriyans Bhandari MS’16, CEO and co-founder, Greensole.
“We are delighted about IAN’s equity investment in Spext, as well as the strength of all finalists. Babson is developing the next generation of leaders who will take action and deliver social and economic value, and the passion, innovation, and knowledge shown in the pitches are truly testament to that commitment,” said Debi Kleiman, Executive Director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College. “We are so eager to see how Spext will leverage this exciting investment and the expertise of the global IAN network and to create additional opportunities for our entrepreneurs to access capital and critical resources.”
Read on for more on the winner, Gosavi, and each finalist. For full profiles, head to the Blank Center’s blog.
Anup Gosavi MBA’13, co-founder, Spext
Spext is an all-in-one platform that converts voice media into useful content. Using speech to text APIs, Spext quickly makes digital transcripts from audio—from meetings to podcasts to interview transcripts and more. Bringing text editing, which is second nature to many of us, together with voice content means content marketing can scale.
From the Blank Center: “Gosavi credits his Babson MBA with teaching him both strategic frameworks—including product positioning, go-to-market strategy, and managing a team, and tactical skills, including creating financial projections, doing competitive analysis, and running meetings. . . In his pitch, he plans to emphasize that Spext has built a highly talented research team in India and that this is a team with deep tech knowledge that global researchers will want to join.”
Shriyans Bhandari MS’16, CEO and co-founder, Greensole
Bhandari’s company, Greensole, refurbishes old shoes into comfortable and trendy footwear for hundreds of children who walk to school. It’s an environmentally friendly model that has human benefit, too—by creating jobs, and providing new shoes to those who cannot afford them.
From the Blank Center: “Along with his co-founder, Director Ramesh Dhami, Bhandari was originally inspired by the many pairs of shoes he burned through every year as a runner and athlete. When they realized they could salvage the soles and merge them with other materials to create new pairs of shoes, the idea for Greensole was born. . . Bhandari is enthusiastic about the intersection of customer trends and Greensole’s product, noting that the business ‘has the potential to become mainstream globally in the next few years, as the new generation is much more conscious of the impact of their purchase and lifestyle on the society and the environment.’”
More on Bhandari and Greensole »
Ryan Lupberger ’18, CEO and co-founder, cleancult
Billed as the “next generation of green cleaners,” cleancult—co-founded by Lupberger and Zachary Bedrosian ’18—is on a mission to revolutionize the cleaning experience with simple, sustainable ingredients that actually clean.
From the Blank Center: “From the Blank Center’s Summer Venture Program to Len Green’s Ultimate Entrepreneurial Challenge to the B.E.T.A. Challenge, Babson has provided opportunities for cleancult every step of the way “from nothing to something” in Lupberger’s words. Lupberger sees pitching in the IAN Global Startup Competition as the capstone experience in cleancult’s journey with Babson and, along with Bedrosian, is truly appreciative of Babson’s support.”
More on Lupberger and cleancult »
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