Black PR Wire Power Profiler on Jessica O. Matthews, founder & CEO of Uncharted

Jessica O. Matthews is a Nigerian-American inventor, Founder, CEO and venture capitalist. She grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, as a dual citizen of the United States and Nigeria. 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.  In 2011, Fortune named her one of its “10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs” and in 2015, named her as one of the “Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs.” In 2012, the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations named her “Scientist of the Year.” The President of Nigeria named her an “Ambassador for Entrepreneurship” for the country.

Matthews was destined for success. As a junior in college in 2008, she and classmate Julia Silverman invented Soccket as part of an assignment for an engineering class.  She has described the inspiration for the invention as coming from an experience attending her aunt's wedding in Nigeria. 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.  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, 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.

Today, Uncharted is an award-winning MWBE-certified technology company founded in 2011 on the belief that reliable access to sustainable infrastructure is a human right.

Starting first with energy-generating play and infrastructure hardware products, in 2021, Uncharted evolved into a software-as-a-service (SAAS) sustainable infrastructure company that creates solutions to improve the efficiency and accessibility of energy, water, air, transit, and connectivity infrastructure.  

Uncharted is headquartered in New York with a diverse, remote workforce across the world. Uncharted has grown with support from investors like BBG Ventures, WOCSTAR Fund, Backstage Capital, Magic Johnson Enterprises, Jeff Wilke, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, Carmelo Anthony, Issa Rae, Hannibal Buress and others.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_O._Matthews; https://www.uncharted.city/