Crunchies Honor Tech Companies Poised to Change the World

Published January 10, 2009 @ 08:04AM PT

2007 Crunchie winner Gabe Rivera, founder of techmeme

The Crunchies are an annual competition that honor web and technology startups across a variety of categories, sponsored by companies like TechCrunch, GigaOm, and VentureBeat. As you've seen if you follow the blog, I think the web/tech startup world has huge potential to shape and drive social entrepreneurship, and so I was excited to see two categories related to changing the world.

In the "Most likely to make the world a better place" category, the winners were green consumer watchdog and rating service GoodGuide and microlending marketplace Kiva. The full list of nominees included:

Akoha - The worlds first "social reality game" where you can spread love and good karma by paying forward little actions like buying someone coffee.

Causes - Project Agape's application which allows for large-scale political and social mobilization through Facebook.

CO2Stats - A company that helps you green your website, offset emissions and switch to renewable energy for a monthly fee

GoodGuide (winner) - A consumer watchdog that uncovers the social and environmental impact of your every-day products

Kiva (runner-up) - A micro-lending marketplace that allows donors to connect with developing world microentrepreneurs seeking credit

Better Place - A bold company trying to create an electric car network with technology available today

Better Place was also runner-up in the "Cleantech" category. The winner in Cleantech was Project Frog. Project Frog designs affordable, customized energy efficient buildings for different needs (such as green classrooms).

See the full list of winners here.

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Author

Nathaniel is the founding Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, which works annually with hundreds of students in dozens of countries around the world through curricular programs and student project incubation.