Exactics Wins UChicago SNVC And Makes University Startup History

In March of this year, Exactics won first place at UChicago’s College New Venture Challenge, out-competing five other undergraduate startups out of UChicago and University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and taking home an investment of $115,000 — the second highest investment in competition history.

In April, Exactics was invited to compete against 18 graduate and 1 undergraduate (shoutout Rise Reforming!) startups in the UChicago Social New Venture Challenge. Even as one of only two undergraduate teams in the entire cohort, Exactics won first place again in the final round of SNVC this May. Exactics secured an investment of $135,000 from the Rustandy Center, as well as $150,000 in follow-on investment from the competition's judges.

This makes Exactics the only company to have won both competitions—and all as a team of undergraduates. We are extremely proud of this title, which is due in no small part to Exactics CFO Zach Sarmoen’s winning pitch strategy. Including the investments from CNVC and SNVC, as well as friends and family, and multiple angel investors, Exactics is closing our first raise at $1.5 million, oversubscribed from our initial target of $1.2 million.