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Jessica O. Matthews

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Jessica O. Matthews
NationalityNigerian-American (dual citizen)
Alma materHarvard College, Harvard Business School
Occupation(s)Inventor, CEO
Years active2008-present
Organization(s)Uncharted, KDDC
Known forSoccket
Websitewww.uncharted.city

Jessica O. Matthews is a Nigerian-American inventor, Founder, CEO and venture capitalist.[1] She is the co-founder of Uncharted, which made Soccket, a soccer ball that can be used as a portable power generator. Matthews attended Harvard College and graduated from Harvard Business School.[2] In 2011, Fortune named her one of its "10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs"[3] and in 2015, named her as one of it "Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs".[4] In 2012, the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations named her "Scientist of the Year."[5] Matthews is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Nigeria.[2] The President of Nigeria named her an "Ambassador for Entrepreneurship" for the country.[6]

Early life

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Matthews was born on February 13, 1988, and grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, as a dual citizen of the United States and Nigeria. She is the second of four children. Her parents run a software business, Decision Technologies International[2][7] and her sister, Tiana Idoni-Matthews, became a marketing director of Uncharted Play.[8] Matthews attended Our Lady of Lourdes High School,[9] as a teenager pursuing science fairs and track and field.[7] Matthews then attended Harvard College where she majored in Economics and later Harvard Business School.[2]

Career

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Uncharted Play

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As a junior in college in 2008,[10] Matthews and classmate Julia Silverman invented Soccket as part of an assignment for an engineering class.[11] She has described the inspiration for the invention as coming from an experience attending her aunt's wedding in Nigeria.[12] When the electricity was lost and diesel generators were used to keep the lights on, Matthews recognized the health hazard posed from fumes and decided to try to do something about it.[2] She and Silverman presented Soccket as their proposed solution, a soccer ball that stores kinetic energy as it's used. A half-hour of play with the soccer ball generates enough energy to power a small, attachable LED light for three hours,[13] so that play with soccer ball also provides children a reading light with which to do their homework after dark. The two founded Uncharted Power to develop Soccket, with Matthews becoming CEO.[3]

After graduating from college in 2010, Matthews took a full-time job working at a crowd-funding company called CrowdTap.[6] The following year, she left that company to work on Uncharted Power full-time,[3] initially raising funds through Kickstarter and then utilizing convertible debt.[6] That same year, she presented Soccket at the Clinton Global Initiative University[3] and on President Barack Obama's 2013 trip to Tanzania.[7][14] The company also makes a jump rope that stores energy in a means similar to Soccket called the Pulse, which generates three hours of power for an LED through 15 minutes of jumping rope.[6]

The initial manufacturing run of Soccket encountered significant quality control issues, so Matthews moved production to Uncharted Play's own facilities in New York.[15] She subsequently shifted the company's focus to developing a broader range of kinetic-energy-storing products in partnership with experienced manufacturers.[2] This shift included trademarking MORE, an acronym for Motion-based Off-Grid Renewable Energy, a system which uses Soccket's energy-storing method in consumer products beyond toys.[8][16] "Matthews describes her company's proprietary MORE technology as an energy harvesting and emanating building block that can be seamlessly integrated into various infrastructures, objects and products — everything from floor panels, streets, speedbumps and sidewalks, to subway turnstiles, strollers, shopping carts and beyond."[16]

Uncharted Power

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In 2016, Uncharted Power had been profitable for three consecutive years and doubled gross profit margins year by year.[17] In 2016, Matthews raised $7 million in Series A funding for Uncharted Power,[18] with the company valued at $57 million.[19] TechCrunch reported that this made Matthews the 13th black female founder to have raised more than $1 million in funding.[20] By March 2017, 500,000 Socckets and Pulses had been used in developing regions, primarily in Africa and Latin America.[21] In 2016, when Matthews moved Uncharted Power to Harlem, New York, she created a non-profit arm, the Harlem Tech Fund (HTF), which aims to support 100 new startups and offer technology training to 10,000 Harlem residents over the next two to five years.[1] Matthews serves as chairman of the board of HTF.[21] In the same year, she was recognized at the Harlem Economic Development Day, receiving the Outstanding Corporate Diversity Award.[1]

Other

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Matthews has expanded to work on global infrastructure projects.[22] She is co-founder and executive director of KDDC, developing a hydropower dam project in Nigeria.[23] The 30-megawatt dam is among the first hydroelectric dam projects privatized in Nigeria.[22] In 2021, she was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Energy to the U.S. Department of Energy's Electricity Advisory Committee (EAC).[24]

Recognition

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Matthews has received numerous awards, honors and recognition.[5][21][25] In 2013, she was named "Innovator of the Year" by Black Enterprise,[26] and was recognised as both one of Forbes 30 Under 30 and Inc.'s 30 under 30 in 2014 and 2016 respectively,[6][27] and selected twice by Fortune for recognition.[3][4] Matthews received the "One Young World Entrepreneur of the Year" Award in 2020.[28]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Abello, Oscar Perry (October 20, 2016). "This Woman Wants to Run Harlem's First Billion-Dollar Tech Company". NextCity. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Hartmans, Avery (October 8, 2016). "The inventor of the energy-harnessing soccer ball made a huge pivot — and it's paying off big time". Business Insider. Archived from the original on February 5, 2017. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Doing it for themselves - The Social Entrepreneurs (2)". Fortune. September 30, 2011. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  4. ^ a b Groden, Claire (September 9, 2015). "Meet Fortune's 2015 Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs". Fortune. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  5. ^ a b "Matthews, Silverman are Scientists of the Year". Harvard Gazette. March 30, 2012. Archived from the original on March 6, 2017. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
    - "The Harvard Foundation Honors Jessica Matthews '10 and Julia Silverman '10 as the 2012 Scientists of the Year at the annual Harvard Foundation Science Conference" (PDF). The Harvard Foundation Journal. XXXI (2). Spring 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
    - Stych, Anne (April 5, 2016). "Energy-generating soccer balls, jump ropes help keep lights on in developing countries". The Business Journals. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
  6. ^ a b c d e Helman, Christopher (January 6, 2014). "The Stars Of Forbes' 30 Under 30 In Energy And Industry". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  7. ^ a b c della Cava, Marco (May 27, 2014). "Change Agents: Matthews' Soccket lights up lives". USA Today. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  8. ^ a b Shamah, David (April 4, 2016). "The soccer ball that lights up when kicked, and other kinetic energy converters". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  9. ^ "Jessica O. Matthews '06". Our Lady of Lourdes. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  10. ^ "Uncharted Play - Upstarts: The Playmakers". CNN Money. June 24, 2015. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  11. ^ Karas, David (November 13, 2014). "Jessica O. Matthews has a ball generating energy". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
  12. ^ Hartogs, Jessica (July 23, 2012). "Powering the future: Kick a ball, switch on a light". CBS News. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  13. ^ Valet, Vicky (October 1, 2015). "The New Inventors: Catching Up With Six 30 Under 30 Makers". Forbes. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  14. ^ CNN Political Unit (July 2, 2013). "Obama shows off his 'Soccket' moves". CNN. Archived from the original on August 19, 2016. Retrieved February 22, 2017. {{cite news}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  15. ^ Collins, Jennifer (April 8, 2014). "Impoverished kids love the soccer ball that powers a lamp — until it breaks". Public Radio International. Archived from the original on February 21, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  16. ^ a b "Her Renewable Energy Startup Turns Soccer Balls and Sidewalks Into Power Sources". Free Enterprise. May 3, 2017. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
  17. ^ Buchanan, Leigh (May 20, 2017). "An Entrepreneur Who Never Runs Out of Energy". Inc. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  18. ^ Hirtenstein, Anna (September 22, 2016). "Magic Johnson Funds Uncharted Play's Ball That Generates Power". Bloomberg. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  19. ^ "The Funding Is Female: 18 Founders And Venture Capitalists Changing The Tech Landscape". ValueWalk. March 8, 2017. Retrieved March 22, 2017.[permanent dead link‍]
    - "The Funding Is Female: 18 Founders And Venture Capitalists Changing The Tech Landscape". ValueWalk. March 8, 2017. Retrieved May 17, 2017.[permanent dead link‍]
  20. ^ Dickey, Megan Rose (19 September 2016). "Black female founder raises $7 million for renewable energy tech startup". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  21. ^ a b c Ochieng, Akinyi (March 17, 2017). "Jessica O. Matthews is the Tech Maven Bringing Renewable Energy to Nigeria and Beyond". OkayAfrica. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
  22. ^ a b Sharma, Charu (18 June 2015). "Going Against the Flow: Jessica O. Matthews, Founder/CEO of Uncharted Play". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  23. ^ "Jessica O. Matthews - SuperSoul 100". SuperSoul TV. August 3, 2016. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  24. ^ "U.S. Department of Energy Announces 2022 Electricity Advisory Committee". Energy.gov. Retrieved 2022-11-05.
  25. ^ "Toyota Awards $50K in Grants to Women at Women in the World Summit". Manufacturing Close-Up. March 17, 2012. Archived from the original on November 19, 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2017 – via HighBeam Research.
    - Adams, Kirby (September 27, 2014). "Awards celebrate legacy of 'The Greatest'". The Courier-Journal. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
    - Simon, Mashaun D. (February 11, 2017). "#NBCBLK28: Jessica O. Matthews has a brighter idea to capture the energy of play". NBC News. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  26. ^ Dingle, Derek T. (July 3, 2013). "How One Black Entrepreneur 'Powers' Obama's Africa Strategy". Black Enterprise. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  27. ^ Fenn, Donna (May 24, 2017). "These Young Entrepreneurs Are Shaping the Future". Inc. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  28. ^ "One Young World Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2020 - Winners Announced". One Young World. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
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