After years in the esports and gaming industry, Jessica Flor launched Hexwave to create inclusive games and support indie developers.

After dealing with multiple errors, David Webb, founder of LowPropTax, takes property taxes personally.

By the end of the 20th century, the Three Rs were everywhere: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. But waste management is more complicated than a catchy slogan, according to Sambhav Agarwal, a third-year computer science student at UC Davis.

For many, plant-based proteins leave a bad taste in the mouth: bitter and “beany,” according to Vanessa Small. At her food tech startup Alcheme Bio, she strips that tart taste at the cellular level to enhance flavoring.

Nearly a decade ago, researchers issued a grim prediction: By 2050, plastic in the ocean would outweigh all the fish. Now, just 25 years away from that deadline, a tech startup named after sea nymphs in Greek mythology is turning the tide on the ocean’s plastic waste.

Purple Door Finders is a platform for seniors to connect with communities directly, eliminating the hassle of sales solicitations and the costs of referral fees paid by the communities. The Folsom-based startup is a software company that provides real-time information on vacancies, pricing, move-in incentives, services, amenities, community events and more.

Doctors call it the “obstetrician’s nightmare”: a childbirth emergency where the baby’s head emerges, but the shoulders get stuck behind the mother’s pubic bone. The founding duo at Everest Medical Solutions has designed a device to make delivery safer and less traumatic when this complication arises. 

From crafting with popsicle sticks in elementary school to working with small electronic devices in middle school, Kavya Khare clearly had DIY in her DNA. She is now the founder of The Make Box, a UC Davis and Bay Area-based startup that creates modular robotic kits, SnapBots, for young students to engage in STEM.

Nexa Labs took home first prize at the 2025 UC Davis Big Bang! Competition for a solution designed to give farmers real-time health data on livestock so they can catch diseases early.

InnerPlant develops seed technology that turns crops into living sensors that detect stress (such as fungus, pathogens and nitrogen deficiency) at the molecular level before visible symptoms appear. The startup’s initial focus is a soybean engineered to emit a fluorescent optical signal within 48 hours of fungal infection.