Intelius Honors Five Student-Run Startups that are Changing Our World at the Kairos Global Summit
Intelius Entrepreneurship Award Recognizes Outstanding Student-Founded Companies
NEW YORK and BELLEVUE, Wash., Feb. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Intelius, a leading information commerce company, today announced recipients of the 2011 Intelius Entrepreneurship Awards at the Kairos Global Summit. The annual awards are designed to recognize exceptional entrepreneurs behind student-founded companies in the following categories: international, marketing, social impact, sustainability and technology.
As part of the 2011 Kairos Global Summit, the awards were presented by Intelius founder and CEO, Naveen Jain, on the balcony of the New York Stock Exchange. The Summit showcased 50 innovative student-run startups from around the world, and also featured a day of keynote presentations and mentoring workshops by global leaders at the United Nations.
"Intelius is extremely proud to honor five of the most exceptional young entrepreneurs of our time," said Mr. Jain. "These students embrace the core values of entrepreneurship and innovation, never fearing failure but embracing it to solve the world's greatest challenges. We applaud their ideas, innovation and passion and believe their achievements will drive the global economy forward and establish new standards in corporate social responsibility."
In its third year, the Kairos Society is a non-profit network of the best and brightest students from the U.S. and around the world. Each year the organization hosts a Global Summit which brings together more than 350 student entrepreneurs and the foremost business leaders to discuss solutions to the world's most pressing problems.
"The companies honored today by Intelius represent the best of what the Kairos Society stands for," said Ankur Jain, president of the Kairos Society. "Each serves as an example of how one individual can reinvent the American dream and inspire millions of young entrepreneurs to do the same. In addition to creating jobs and driving innovation, these college students are identifying new ways to address some of the world's greatest challenges, including energy, clean water and health care."
Startups were selected based on innovation, creativity, marketability and scalability. Following are this year's recipients of the 2011 Intelius Entrepreneurship Award:
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Intelius Entrepreneurship Award for Marketing: PurBlu Beverages - Ben Lewis, Founder and CEO; University of Pennsylvania |
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PurBlu Beverages is the maker of GIVE Water and Energy, the innovative and healthy bottled beverages that allow customers to support their favorite local charities through a simple, everyday purchase. For each bottle sold, ten cents is donated to a charitable cause of the consumer's choice. Working closely with local distributors PurBlu has built a vast network of non-profits and charities making a difference in their communities. |
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Intelius Entrepreneurship Award for Social Impact: WaterWalla, Inc. – Anshu Vaish and Neil Parikh, Co-Executive Directors; Brown University |
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WaterWalla is a full-service consulting and implementation firm that seeks to partner with companies with manufacturing capabilities to develop specific and sustainable water purification products for residents of urban slums. Its approach uses novel technologies to produce rich data about purchasing habits and needs of urban slum residents, thus providing quantitative tools to aid market entry for other products. |
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Intelius Entrepreneurship Award for Technology: DxTura – Heather D. Bowerman and Constantine Seferis, Harvard University; and Carl Justin Kamp, MIT |
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DxTura has developed a novel medical technology that combines elements of paper diagnostics and electrochemical reading to determine the presence and concentration of certain organic compounds throughout a range of liquids. This innovative and versatile technology has the potential for use in a number of different distinct medical and industrial applications. |
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Intelius Entrepreneurship Award for Sustainability: ThinkLite LLC – Dinesh Wadhwani and Enrico Palmerino, Managing Partners; Babson College |
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ThinkLite is an efficiency firm that provides energy efficient lighting solutions to businesses and households at no upfront costs. ThinkLite uses advanced technologies to measure energy consumed by lighting and provides turnkey solutions: audits, analysis, products, installation, warranties and guaranteed energy savings that reduce monthly lighting costs by up to 90%. In exchange for its services, ThinkLite receives a percentage of the guaranteed monthly savings realized by customers. |
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Intelius Entrepreneurship Award for International: Solben – Daniel Gomez Iniguez, Co-founder; TEC de Monterrey Mexico |
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Solben is an innovative new business that develops proprietary processes for the production of biodiesel. The company is currently testing a range of modular technologies that will allow for more efficient and automated processing. |
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In addition to its awards, Intelius is also sponsoring an internship program for active Kairos Society members. This year a limited number of eight week internships will be available during the summer of 2011. To apply, send resumes to [email protected] by March 11. Interns will be announced by March 23.
ABOUT INTELIUS
Intelius is a leading information commerce company providing businesses and consumers with information to empower the decision-making process for peace of mind and security. To date, Intelius has gained more than 12 million unique customers who use Intelius' information to reconnect and protect their loved ones, businesses and assets. Intelius has 30 million unique users visiting its sites each month. Intelius' services include background checks, people search services, comprehensive employment screening services and an award-winning identity theft prevention product, IDProtect™. Intelius is one of the top 100 most trafficked sites on the Internet, according to comScore/Media Metrix. For more about Intelius' business, news and policies, visit www.intelius.com/corp.
ABOUT THE KAIROS SOCIETY
The Kairos Society is a student-led and operated non-profit organization designed to foster entrepreneurism among college students. The organization fosters global entrepreneurship and innovation by uniting the brightest undergraduates from around the world, the most recognized entrepreneurial firms and the most passionate mentors, who themselves are international economic executives, collaborating to ensure a fruitful global economy and international relationships. Kairos chapters include the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Stanford, Tufts, Duke, MIT, Emory, Furman, USC, Columbia, NYU and many more, with students from nine countries including China, Israel and the UK. For more information, please visit: http://www.kairossociety.com. international, marketing, social impact, sustainability, and technology
Media Contact: |
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Carleen LeVasseur |
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Sparkpr for Intelius |
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408-264-6767 |
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SOURCE Intelius
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