In chasing hype technology and vanity metrics, the venture ecosystem has deprioritized the kinds of companies that improve life for everyday people. While startups optimize for elite users and prestige markets, millions are still navigating broken systems in sectors like healthcare, education, F&B, and financial services—with little innovation aimed their way. The result is a growing gap between what gets built and what's actually needed.
At Kernal, we're rethinking what gets built—and why.
We're a venture studio building and backing companies tackling the most urgent, human-centered challenges of our time. We look for overlooked problem spaces with massive societal impact, and work side-by-side with founders to design solutions at-scale. Practical problems are billion-dollar opportunities, and we believe you can do good while doing well.
We run a dual model:
Build — We create ventures in-house when we see white space the market isn't filling fast enough.
Back — We incubate and invest in founders building companies that make life more livable, affordable, and intuitive. We are sector-agnostic but problem specific. Maybe you're rethinking a basic life service from first principles, maybe your product is revolutionizing how people connect through digital networks, or maybe you're obsessed with food delivery—tell us where you fit in our thesis. Whether you're just getting started or scaling a full-fledged company, we work with startups from start to exit. We love gritty, unsexy problem spaces—if it's bold, ambitious, and disruptive, we're in.
In 2024, we backed 20+ startups with a combined valuation of $2.3+ million, connecting them to 10+ VCs including LvlUp Ventures, Greycroft, Outlander VC, Santa Barbara Venture Partners, Spin Labs, Capchase, Pegasus Angel Accelerator, ExpertDojo, and L’Oréal Bold.
Here's a sneak peek at a few of our past builds:
RhizeUp — bioengineered Rhizobium for sustainable agriculture.
Derma — AI-powered skin cancer diagnosis.
Compact — the all-in-one productivity app.
Enrichify — better insights for monitoring your finances.
KidneyLine — at-home kidney test kits.
Ignis — the AI-powered financial terminal for everyday investors.
NeuraHope — ensuring healthy pregnancies.
We love weird problems, underestimated builders, and ambitious ideas.
→ Pitch a company
→ Join something we're building
→ Say hello
We started out as Sandbox Incubator, a launchpad for ambitious student founders building real companies before they could vote.
It was scrappy, fast, and raw zero-to-one experimentation. So, in the spirit of that ethos, we're keeping the door open. Through the Sandbox Fund, we'll continue to incubate founders 18 and under—no traction, no warm intro needed. If your company is solving a real problem, we want to hear from you.
To apply, send an email to sandboxincubator@gmail.com with your pitch.