Thiel Foundation Announces Next Thiel Fellow Class

New class includes 23 entrepreneurs in aviation, healthcare, AI, supply chain and more

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Thiel Foundation today named 23 individuals as the next class of Thiel Fellows. The Fellowship program, which launched in 2011, encourages talented young people to pursue big ideas and start companies instead of attending college.

“This class of fellows breaks ground in new technologies across multiple industries,” said Jimmy Kaltreider, Executive Director of the Thiel Foundation. “They join 228 fellows from previous classes who have pioneered crypto currency, extended longevity research, advanced self-driving cars, created new consumer products, and built solutions to environmental challenges.”

During the two-year program, fellows receive $100,000 and mentorship from the Thiel Foundation’s network of technology founders, investors, and scientists. The only requirement is that fellows pause their college enrollment and focus exclusively on building their technology or company.

“This class was selected from the greatest number of applications we have ever received,” said Allyson Dias, director of the Thiel Fellowship. “Despite COVID restrictions and Zoom classrooms, applicants pushed ahead and developed an astonishing number of truly impressive projects.”

To date, companies created by Thiel Fellows are together valued at more than $46.8 billion, excluding Ethereum which is valued at $450 billion.

About the new Thiel Fellows (Name: age, location)

Alex Taylor: 20, Lowell, MI

• Orb Aerospace creates electric aircraft to meet the needs of developing nations.

Alfonso de los Rios: 23, Monterrey, México

• Nowports facilitates the import and export process of Latin American companies across seven different countries.

Ana Cornell: 21, Chicago, IL

• Acorn Genetics is an at-home DNA testing company, focused on delivering consumers affordable and accurate genetic results while keeping data private.

Ariana Sokolov: 20, Los Angeles, CA

• Ariana is creating better and more affordable tools and testing for neurodiverse individuals (those with ADHD, dyslexia, mild autism, etc).

Ben Botvinick: 19, Palo Alto, CA

• Hyper allows anyone to start an online business and begin accepting payments in a matter of minutes.

Ben Nashman: 21, Toronto, ON

• Synex Medical is building the next generation of non-invasive health monitoring technology, beginning with the world’s first non-invasive glucose monitor.

Dayton Mills: 23, Seattle, WA

• Branch.gg is a socialgaming platform focused on creating, sharing and monetizing instantly playable games and experiences in the metaverse.

Edward Beccle: 22, London, UK

• Glorify is a Christian daily worship application creating space for users to connect with God and their community.

Geffen Avraham: 20, Hod Hasharon, Israel / San Francisco, CA

• Launching his first satellite at 18, Geffen created Skyline Celestial to build the personal computer of satellites and open the cosmos for all individuals.

Ian Lee: 20, Santiago, Chile

• Examedi is a healthcare-at-home marketplace in Latin America connecting patients to nurses to perform clinical lab tests at home.

James Dacombe: 21, London, UK

• CoMind is developing non-invasive neuroimaging tools to detect a range of signals and create a seamless interface to the brain.

John Ciocca: 21, Bonita Springs, FL

• Purple builds financial products that enable people with disabilities to spend, save and invest.

Kiara Nirghin: 21, San Francisco, CA

• Rather is building financial technology to improve access to net worth building asset classes for the new generation.

Lada Nuzhna: 22, Kyiv, Ukraine

• Lada researches and develops biological tools to better visualize and manage biology at the molecular level.

Michael Lee: 23, Austin, TX

• Biodock is a computer vision platform for scientists, helping them more effectively understand their experiments and discover new insights by identifying and quantifying biological objects through no-install, GPU-powered AI modules.

Nastassia Ponomarenko: 22, San Francisco, CA

• Corecircle is a social fitness app empowering individuals to document and track their fitness journey in a like-minded community.

Oliver Edholm: 19, Stockholm, Sweden

• Depict.ai provides online retailers with a product recommendation system allowing them to focus on continuing to make and curate exceptional products.

Raina Jain: 19, Riverside, CT

• QueenBee sustainably creates wellness products utilizing honeybee byproducts.

Rachel Xu: 21, San Francisco, CA

• Rachel is building blockchain technology for artists and creatives to autonomously own their IP and profits.

Ryan Park: 21, Seoul, Republic of Korea

• Anchor is a DeFi savings protocol that offers stable and attractive yields on stablecoin deposits. Anchor taps into block rewards of major proof-of-stake blockchains to generate yields countercyclical to market fluctuations.

Tamara Chayo Romo: 22, Mexico City, México

• MEDU is a sustainable medical apparel producer providing healthcare professionals with the recyclable and innovative garments they need to remain protected while on the job.

Tejas Manohar: 22, San Francisco, CA

• Hightouch provides the necessary tools for companies to supercharge their marketing and sales initiatives by syncing data from warehouses into the tools business teams rely on including Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, and Facebook ads.

Tyler Bernstein: 23, Washington, D.C.

• Zeno Power is developing small-scale nuclear power systems to provide clean and resilient power in austere environments.

About The Thiel Foundation

The Thiel Foundation supports science, technology, and long-term thinking about the future. For more information, see www.thielfoundation.org.

To apply for the Thiel Fellowship for 2022, please click here.

Thiel Fellows are currently hiring! To see our job board, please click here.

The Thiel Fellowship is also hiring, if interested in joining our team, send us a note about yourself at [email protected]. College degree not required.

Contacts

Steven Silvio

[email protected]