Announcing Our First Inflection Grantees
Five early-stage builders working at the frontiers of health, climate, biotech, and materials.
Thank you to Pranav Berry, Katherine Jones, and Sunir Kishan Manandhar for their thoughtful review and support in the selection process.
Edge Esmeralda has wrapped, but our support for builders at the frontiers of science, technology, and society doesn’t stop when the village ends.
With support from Long Journey Ventures, we’re funding Inflection Grants – $2,000 microgrants for young people working on unusually early, unusually bold ideas.
These grants are designed for moments of momentum, for inflection points, when a small push can make a meaningful difference. We back people, not plans: curious thinkers, builders, and researchers under 25 who are ready to test ideas, gain skills, and find their people.
From cancer microrobots to fungal fashion, from rural maternal care to metabolic sensing wearables, these are the kinds of projects that remind us why small bets can have outsized impact.
We’re thrilled to introduce the newest recipients of this cohort of Inflection Grants.
Meet the Grantees
Eva Bothra
17, Bangalore, India
Eva is the founder of Janam, a mobile birthing clinic built inside a repurposed shipping container and deployed in rural India, where over 60% of women lack access to safe childbirth. With her first prototype already in operation, she’s now building Janam 2.0: a second clinic outfitted with sterilized delivery beds, solar-powered water purification, IoT sensors for real-time environmental tracking, and printed maternal health guides in regional languages. This Inflection Grant helps fund core infrastructure and training for midwives, expanding a model that has already reached hundreds of women. Her goal: make maternal healthcare trusted, local, and replicable.
Camron Kajari
16, Los Angeles, CA
Camron is building biohybrid microrobots – algae-based vehicles coated with magnetic nanoparticles to deliver drugs directly to tumors. The grant will fund his first set of lab tests: growing algae, fabricating microfluidic chips, and controlling the bots with DIY electromagnets. Inspired by his father’s oncology work, Camron’s betting on smarter delivery, not stronger drugs. He’s also the solo developer of AlgebraCards.com and a lead mentor at SouthBaySTEM, where he supports younger students in STEM.
Lara Rudar
21, Stanford, CA
Lara is developing biodegradable, net-zero fibers grown from fungi that feed on food waste. She’s working with Stanford’s Peay Lab to prototype textiles with natural antibacterial and tunable properties - materials that could be spun and woven like traditional synthetics but compost in weeks, not centuries. Lara’s past work spans global climate policy (as a COP delegate) to founding LA Climate Week.
Vivek Kommi
16, Cambridge, UK
Vivek is tackling obesity with a first-of-its-kind wearable that passively tracks caloric intake using microwave sensors, hyperspectral imaging, and bioimpedance. His deep-learning model processes signals to detect what and how much someone consumes, aiming for >90% accuracy. He began this work after his father’s diagnosis, and now collaborates with Cambridge Metabolic Lab under special supervision. This grant supports an MVP, and more freedom to build beyond the limits of age and access.
Daniel Li
15, Queens, NY
Daniel is designing a dry-powder inhaler that delivers antioxidants directly to stressed lung cells. The device uses “stealthed” liposomes, tiny PEG-coated vesicles tagged with transferrin, to neutralize oxidative stress without triggering an immune response. Daniel leads a cancer research initiative at Stuyvesant High School and conducts research at Weill Cornell. His goal: pursue unconventional biotech ideas independently, without needing to wait years or co-signs from adults to take real risks.
These grants are part of a larger vision: to support people who are building unusually early, unusually well.
Edge City creates popup villages to prototype new ways of living and working together, but many of the most important inflection points happen far from the village. Inflection Grants are designed to support early momentum, when a small idea starts to take shape.
Want to support the next inflection point?
Donate: Help us fund the next cohort of early-stage builders. Every dollar goes directly to grantees.
Mentor: Interested in guiding a grantee? Get in touch.
Apply: If you’re under 25 and a $2,000 grant could change your trajectory, we’ll be accepting application for the next cohort this coming fall.
We’re also finalizing a new round of compute-focused grants, in partnership with Prime Intellect. That announcement, along with five new grantees, will go live next week!
Stay tuned for more early-stage projects, updates, and experiments!
– Edge Esmeralda Team ☀️