The Tamer Fund for Social Ventures recently completed its fifth funding cycle and selected four new early-stage ventures to add to the portfolio. Four Columbia University-affiliated teams of social entrepreneurs recently received seed grants from the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures to help them develop their early-stage ventures. In addition to funding, these entrepreneurs also gain access to the social enterprise resources the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia Business School provides. These recent grants form the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures’ fifth funding cycle, bringing the fund’s total portfolio to 20 ventures. The following Tamer Fund for Social Venture awardees were selected out of a record 130 applicants who applied to the fund for the fall 2017 cycle. These ventures were selected after participating in an application screening round, a due diligence process with student teams as part of a Columbia Business School course, and a final pitch to the fund’s Investment Board: Bonbouton: Bonbouton, founded by Linh Le, ’09SEAS, is a technology platform for preventative diabetic health care. Their first product is a Bluetooth-enabled shoe insole with a proprietary embedded graphene sensing system that passively monitors the skin’s physiological signals to detect the early signs of foot ulcers. Young New Yorkers: Young New Yorkers (YNY), founded by Rachel Barnard, ’11GSAPP, provides arts based alternative-to-incarceration programs to teens in the adult criminal justice system with the long-term goal of transforming the criminal legal system. Maine Harvest Credit Project: Maine Harvest Credit Project, founded by Scott Budde, ’83SIPA, is working to create a specialized credit union focused on the financing needs of Maine’s small farms and food producers as a model for other states and regions. Think.iT: Think.iT, co-founded by Mehemed Bougsea ’18SIPA, Amel Abid, ’17BC, and Joscha Raue, trains the brightest minds from North Africa to become technology change-makers, and places them as distributed team members with leading engineering companies. The Tamer Fund for Social Ventures is open to all early-stage Columbia University affiliated social and environmental ventures. Ventures must be led by Columbia University students, alumni, faculty or researchers, or be advised and have significant involvement by Columbia University faculty or researchers from any of Columbia University’s 20 schools. With the addition of Think.iT’s Amel Abid, ’17BC, the founding teams of the fund’s portfolio ventures now represent eight schools across Columbia University: the School of International and Public Affairs; Columbia Business School; Columbia Law School; the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science; the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia College; Barnard College; and the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. To learn more about the social ventures and their founders, please visit: www.gsb.columbia.edu/socialenterprise/socialventures/portfolio More information about the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures and the online application is available at: www.gsb.columbia.edu/socialenterprise/socialventures/apply Application Deadlines: August 15 and March 1, annually About the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures Established in 2015, the Tamer Fund for Social Ventures provides seed grants of up to $25,000 to early-stage nonprofit, for-profit, and hybrid social and environmental ventures. In addition to funding, the ventures gain subsidized co-working space at the Columbia Startup Lab or elsewhere, support from the Center’s Social Venture Advisory Network, connections to pro bono legal services, Columbia student pro bono consulting teams (e.g. Pangea Advisors, the Columbia Impact Investing Initiative, and the Small Business Consulting Program), as well as the opportunity to hire university students to work full-time through the summer as Social Enterprise Summer Fellows. The Tamer Fund for Social Ventures was made possible by a generous donation by Tony and Sandra Tamer.