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Inara: Fall 2025 Burton D. Morgan Finalist
Inara was a Top 10 Fall 2025 Burton D. Morgan finalist founded by Akshada Dake, using AI to help organizations select the right sustainability technologies for a site.
Historical finalist profile — Fall 2025. This page was published in 2026 from founder-linked sources.
Inara was a Top 10 standout venture concept in Purdue's Fall 2025 37th Burton D. Morgan Venture Concept Competition.
Founder: Akshada Dake
What Inara pitched at Burton Morgan
Purdue's competition archive describes the Fall 2025 pitch as an AI solution helping organizations pursuing sustainability outcomes select the right technology for their site without wasting time, money, or political capital figuring out what works.
That broad site-selection problem is the historical competition concept and should be the starting point for the profile.
Later product detail
A later founder-linked Inara post discusses commercial-property rooftop solar and describes simulation of the commercial environment to identify intersections of profit and green technology. That is useful evidence of how the venture was being developed after the competition, but it should not be presented as though Purdue's December 2025 record defined the pitch that narrowly.
Why the concept fits Burton Morgan
The idea is not simply "solar software." Its framing combines:
- a specific buyer environment: commercial property operators;
- an economic constraint: capital allocation and split incentives;
- a sustainability opportunity: underused built infrastructure; and
- a decision problem: where clean-energy integration is both feasible and financially attractive.
That is consistent with the competition's emphasis on customer problems, value creation, market opportunity, and execution risk.
After the competition
Dake later publicly identified herself as a Burton Morgan finalist and a participant in Venture X2, suggesting the concept continued beyond the December final.
Sources
- Purdue's Burton D. Morgan competition archive
- Akshada Dake's profile tying her to Inara Data
- Founder-linked Inara post on commercial solar modeling
- Akshada Dake reflecting on Burton Morgan participation
- Fall 2025 finalists overview