LA’s festival & ecosystem for sustainable innovation.
By engaging with communities on the frontlines of today’s most urgent environmental and health challenges, we aim to identify and accelerate groundbreaking innovations that can make a real impact. Bringing together 150+ forward-thinking startups, investors, businesses, philanthropists, community organizations, and government agencies, ECO moves beyond traditional conversations to collective action.
We empower change-makers to shape a future where sustainability is not just a buzzword, but a tangible reality. Together, we can forge a path towards a healthier and more resilient world.
ECO ’24, hosted by Larta Institute, will take place on December 9th & 10th with quarterly events leading up to our grand ecosystem gathering. Stay tuned by signing up for our newsletter and visiting this page to learn more.
LA’s festival & ecosystem for sustainable innovation.
Join us at ECO ’24 for a two-day ecosystem showcase and celebration, championing bold innovators and solutions from Larta Institute’s Community Labs programs.
This year’s theme will focus on driving innovation at the intersection of healthcare, climate-resilience, and adaptation in under-resourced communities. Showcases will be presented by Larta Institute’s 2024 Venture Fellows and Heal.LA cohort companies.
Activities will include portfolio showcases, interactive panel discussions, awards presentations, and vibrant networking receptions.
Our Venture Fellows Demo Day will showcase innovations tacking climate change in under-resourced communities.
Our Heal.LA Demo Day will showcase innovations tacking healthcare challenges in under-resourced communities
Together, we can forge a path towards a healthier and more resilient world.
Speakers
Take a look at some of the incredible speakers joining us at ECO, with more to be announced soon!
Serena Allen, Airvitalize Innovations (A Venture Fellows Company)
Camilo Ansarah-Sabrinho, MESH Strategic Partnerships, Keck School of Medicine of USC
Hilary Bendon, Larta Institute
Ana-Alicia Carr, Los Angeles Food Policy Council
Nick Caton, SoLA Impact
Derek Chernow, Coalition for Community Solar Access
Stephen Cheung, LAEDC
Michael Chunn, Bag/Get (A Venture Fellows Company)
Alan Cortez, Bag/Get (A Venture Fellows Company)
Kelsea Cregut, Dietitians for a Healthier America (A Heal.LA Company)
Olivia DeRamus, Communia (A Heal.LA Company)
Kacee Doan, Larta institute
Yadira Diaz, Gradible (A Venture Fellows Company)
Johanan Dujon, Algas Organics (A Venture Fellows Company)
Andrew Eil, Tata Consultancy Services
Efrain Escobedo, Center for Nonprofit Management
Miki Esposito, Los Angeles County Public Works Department
Julian Espinosa, Dietitians for a Healthier America (A Heal.LA Company)
Stephan Erkelens, RevHub
Alison Evans, U.S. Small Business Administration
Dr. Jhaimy Fernandez, AltaMed
Rachel Fournier, Evolution Health (A Heal.LA Company)
Iris Geretschnig, I+D DEVICE SOLUTIONS LLC (A Heal.LA Company)
Carlos Gutierrez, Larta Institute
Nora Hackmann, Kenji Health (A Heal.LA Company)
Wilson Hago, Hago Energetics (A Venture Fellows Company)
Chris Halsema, Empower Hope (A Heal.LA Company)
Kimelyn Harris, Wells Fargo Foundation
Sherie Hsieh, iPill Dispenser (A Heal.LA Company)
Stephanie Hsieh, BioscienceLA
John Hsu, MD, iPill Dispenser (A Heal.LA Company)
Serge Kadjo, DoctorFlow (A Heal.LA Company)
Christine King, Feminora (A Heal.LA Company)
Rohan Kunchala, Bag/Get (A Venture Fellows Company)
Ami Lebendiker, Roga (A Heal.LA Company)
Laura Macias, Larta Institute
Alannah Mack, DoctorFlow (A Heal.LA Company)
Maen Mahfoud, Replate (A Venture Fellows Company)
Ines Mato, WatQ.AI (A Venture Fellows Company)
Trevor van Mierlo, Evolution Health (A Heal.LA Company)
Rubayath Mohsen, The Lundquist Institute
Holly Mitchell, LA Couny Supervisor, Distrect 2
Alireza Moshaverinia, Dopamer Regenerative Technologies Inc. (A Heal.LA Company)
Steven Moyo, Welfie Inc. (A Heal.LA Company)
Hannah Nguyen, Larta Institute
Dr. Sophia Ononye, The Sophia Consulting Firm
Arnab Pal, U.S. Department of Energy
Jonathan Parfrey, Climate Resolve
Rigo Rios, Agriculture Specialist
Cesar Rojas, Bag/Get (A Venture Fellows Company)
Marta Segura, City of Los Angeles
Rashmi Shetgiri, LA County Public Health
Rohit Shukla, Larta Institute
Gunjan Siroya, Larta Institute
Alison Smith, Roga (A Heal.LA Company)
Erin Summers, Larta Institute
Carlos Tamayo, WatQ.AI (A Venture Fellows Company)
Jessie Tang, Gratitude Railroad
Desiree Valdez, I+D DEVICE SOLUTIONS LLC (A Heal.LA Company)
Tobias Varntoft, Larta Institute
Lauren Vivian, Wepair Health (A Heal.LA Company)
Dinh Vu, Feminora (A Heal.LA Company)
Kecia Washington, LADWP
Denice Wharton, Suma (A Heal.LA Company)
Sabrina Williams, SEED (A Venture Fellows Company)
Howard Xu, Cal State LA
Finly Zachariah, Empower Hope (A Heal.LA Company)
Manuela Zoninsein, Kadeya (A Venture Fellows Company)
Fostering Science & Technology Innovation.
Explore our previous ‘Road to ECO’ events from earlier this year as we geared up for our big ECO event in December.
ECO at a Glance.
ECO ‘24 will explore our impact areas of nature preservation & repair, food, water & energy systems, and equitable, healthy & resilient communities, showcasing both the challenges and innovative solutions within each sector, through the activation of six threads of programming: communities & people, interactive discussion, policy & adoption, innovation showcases, connections & introductions, and funding.
Engage with local community leaders, residents, and activists on the true problems being faced at grassroots level from the impacts of the economy, climate change, and challenges of health equity.
Listen to curated short talks and participate in panels discussions with thought-leaders from Larta’s startup ecosystem — focused on identifying, nurturing, and scaling solutions for impact.
Engage with policy makers, from local city, state and federal agencies to understand how to collaborate on innovation and accelerate R&D to scale for impact across U.S. communities.
Discover early-stage R&D and scalable solutions that can change the world for positive impact — a curated showcase of leading sustainable innovation from Larta’s portfolio and alumni companies.
Meet selected experts and partners from Larta’s ecosystem — we’ll facilitate curated introductions and connections to relevant government agencies, investors, industry, and community leaders.
ECO convenes Larta’s active funding network including impact investors, family offices, foundations, VCs, and government agencies — innovations will be matched to funding sources.
Community Labs Programs
With three decades of experience in delivering commercialization assistance to government-backed ventures, Larta is now expanding our impact to empower community-focused entrepreneurs and solutions.
Do you have an idea to make your community more resilient, equitable, & sustainable?
The Venture Fellows program is a 9-month, hands-on accelerator, focused on investing in diverse innovators to pilot good ideas that help communities become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
Do you have an idea for an innovation to improve the health & wellness of underserved communities in LA County?
The Heal.LA Bioscience & Healthcare Accelerator is a 9-month, hands-on program, geared towards investing in diverse entrepreneurs to nurture and scale innovations that positively impact the health and wellness of communities in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles, 2024.
ECO ’24 will be based at Larta Institute’s HQ innovation campus in thriving downtown Los Angeles.
