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Wharton Impact Venture Associates (WIVA) is an experiential education program that gives a cohort of students from across the University of Pennsylvania hands-on, real-world experience in impact investing.

Students receive guidance and training from ESG Initiative staff and industry consultants and spend the year researching early-stage companies that have a compelling business model and the potential for significant social or environmental impact. Students meet weekly to present their company research against financial, operational, and impact criteria. WIVA may, following our students’ research into a company, connect the company founders to crowdfunding platforms (though Wharton and WIVA make no representations about such platform’s interest or the success of any crowdfunding campaign).

Vaibhav Gowda, Impact Program Associate at the ESG Initiative, shared, “What makes this program so special is that it bridges academic learning with practical application, making it an excellent stepping stone for aspiring investment professionals.”

He continued, “I was particularly impressed by Teja Vankireddy. As a sophomore and ESG major at Wharton, she researched over 20 companies this year. Our students vigorously debate the impact and financial merits of these companies and her continued perseverance in these meetings was admirable.”

That grit led to her sourcing SISTAIN, an AI-driven marketplace enabling non-toxic living.

Sistain was born after founder Jaclyn Tracy was assembling her wedding registry and struggled to easily find high-quality, sustainable, responsibly made items. This challenge prompted a deep dive into consumer habits and behaviors, revealing the link between consumerism and climate change.

She began to see an opportunity to tap into the thousands of brands integrating sustainable and circular practices into their design, production, and manufacturing. With a background in advertising, she set out to change consumer behavior by changing the reputation of sustainable products to aspirational, modern, and stylish.

This mission to make sustainable living more appealing to everyone initially sparked Vankireddy’s interest in the company. “In a way, they’re democratizing a space that has historically been pretty inaccessible and daunting,” she shared.

Tracy shared, “At Sistain, our goal is to help guide our community to live a more sustainable life through conscious consumerism and to create change for the greater good—the earth and all the people inhabiting it.”

Today, the platform showcases over 50 brands and 1000 sustainable products across bedding, kitchenware, and more. To determine the sustainability of a product, they leverage data science, third-party tools, self-reporting, and feedback from their community across categories including product life cycle, product materials, corporate social responsibility, and more.

In the future, they plan to use AI-driven recommendations to personalize the shopping experience based on style preferences, browsing behavior, and previous purchases. Additionally, shoppers will be able to model what products would look like in their homes through an AI “How to Style” feature.

Sourcing the company was a highlight for Vankireddy who joined WIVA to combine her interests in finance and ESG in a real-world setting. “It’s really exciting to hear about what drives these entrepreneurs to both do good work for the world and for their businesses,” she said.

Vankireddy is putting these same skills to work this summer as a Wealth Management Intern at Glenmede.

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Neither the University of Pennsylvania, the Wharton School, Wharton Impact Venture Associates (WIVA), nor any of their respective students, faculty, directors, officers, employees, representatives, affiliates, or agents (collectively, the “Penn Parties”) (i) is acting as underwriter, broker-dealer, promoter, financial advisor, or other intermediary with respect to any offering of securities by any entity mentioned in this article, or (ii) has received or will receive any compensation from any person or entity as an incentive to publish of this article. In addition, the Penn Parties have not received and will not receive any compensation or other item of value in connection with any possible or future investment in any securities issued by any entity mentioned herein.

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