Browsing Tag: Startups

Hipcamp uses technology to get people away from technology.

The San Francisco-based startup provides a “people-powered platform” that unlocks access to private land for camping, glamping or just a beautiful spot to park your RV, as described by Alyssa Ravasio, founder and chief executive officer. Amid explosive growth in emerging markets, including Florida and Texas, the company has attracted a $25 million Series B investment at a valuation of $127 million.

Andrew Chen, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, has led the round and will join Hipcamp’s board of directors as part of the deal. Caterina Fake of Yes VC, Sarah Tavel of Benchmark, August Capital and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures also participated in the financing, which brings Hipcamp’s total funding to $41.8 million. We first covered Hipcamp in 2014, when the nascent startup raised a $2 million seed round led by AlphaTech.

A self-described internet nerd and avid camper, Ravasio loves the outdoors, as you might’ve guessed. She founded Hipcamp after becoming frustrated with the complex process that is identifying and booking campsites across the U.S.

“I couldn’t believe how difficult the whole process was,” Ravasio told TechCrunch. “I had one camping trip where I spent five hours doing research and almost gave up … I realized camping was broken and the internet could fix it.”

In 2013, Ravasio learned to code and built the first iteration of the Hipcamp platform, a comprehensive database of campsites that earns money by taking a commission made from each booking it facilitates. Today, the company has grown to 40 employees, with campsites in 300,000 sites across the U.S. and plans to expand internationally soon.

“We’re committed to getting people outside, and that’s really the guiding light of our expansion plans,” she said.

As for long-term plans, an Airbnb acquisition wouldn’t make sense, Ravasio explained: “I think going public and making Hipcamp a company that anyone can buy and own part of is exciting to me”

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Andreessen Horowitz values camping business Hipcamp at 7M

LIV, a Prague-based company that wants to make VR gaming more fun to watch, and in turn bring players and spectators closer together, has picked up $1 million in funding. That’s a pretty modest raise as far as ambitious upstarts go — and LIV is certainly ambitious. However, the list of backers includes noteworthy names, such as the founder of Oculus (and designer of Oculus Rift), Palmer Luckey.

Other investors in LIV include Jaroslav Beck, CEO and co-founder of Beat Games (the studio behind VR streaming hit Beat Saber); early-stage VC Seedcamp; accelerator Techstars; Prague’s Credo Ventures; VR company VIVE; and mixed reality production specialist Splitverse.

Founded in 2016, LIV is betting on the premise that VR gaming represents an entirely new platform, and it is new platforms with nascent ecosystems where the biggest opportunities lie. Furthermore, while the watching of video game live streams shows no signs of abating — made popular via sites such as Twitch — the spectator experience hasn’t transitioned very gracefully to VR.

“Creating content in VR is incredibly hard, there are no tools for it, and no shareable content form factor that conveys the experience of being in VR,” says LIV co-founder AJ Shewki, who was previously a competitive gamer under the moniker “Dr Doom.”

“LIV empowers developers and content creators to grow their audience through shareable VR content. Developers integrate our SDK, and content creators are then able to create content with those games and experiences using the LIV App. The content format is called ‘Mixed Reality Capture’ (MRC).”

The “Mixed Reality Capture” experience is inevitably best watched rather than conveyed through the written word (you can see an example below). However, what MRC essentially does is inject a live video or, alternatively, a 3D avatar of the player’s body, inside the video game stream so spectators experience not only what the player sees (the classic VR first-person perspective) but can also follow the “real-world” movements the player makes to execute moves within the game. As a player moves their arms, for example, their avatar can be seen replicating the same moves based on sensor data pulled from the VR gear the player is wearing.

It is this ability to closely watch and potentially learn from the best players that has made video game streaming so popular. But, argues Shewki, the move to VR was initially a backwards step in this regard, as it required additional technology to close the gap between player and spectator.

“The LIV App gives streamers the tools to broadcast themselves as themselves, or as their favourite avatars, inside any of the 100s of games that we support. We support hundreds if not thousands of avatars, including the popular Japanese VRM avatar format,” says Shewki.

“The LIV App also brings utilities like stream chat, stream alerts, scene controls and camera controls natively into the headset using our proprietary 3D overlay system, built specifically with performance in mind (which in VR is already a scarce resource). The LIV SDK is integrated by developers to get their games LIV-ready. We support Unity, Unreal as well as custom engines, and have done integrations with all of them.”

Longer term, Shewki says he wants LIV to not only enable a better live-streaming experience but to evolve into what the company is describing as a “real-time audience interaction platform” for VR streamers and games developers. The thinking here is that spectators of VR can also become participants beyond the simple chatroom experience that exists today.

Dubbed “LIV Play” and targeting a closed alpha release by the end of the year, the idea is to give audiences the ability to influence what happens in-game and in real time, such as purchasing health potions when a player most needs them or spawning extra monsters when they least expect it.

“Our hypothesis was: If we give viewers more engaging ways to participate, as opposed to what you have today with chat, polls and donations, they will,” explains Shewki. “We ran experiments with Beat Saber where we let audiences replace cubes with bombs and do more fun donations. Our experiment results over 120 days were incredible. Week 1 and 2: 700% higher revenue/minute through higher engagement. It petered out to 300% higher rev/min at 120 days, where it’s stayed.”

In other words, take the same monetisation approach that we have seen in games like Fortnite and apply it to the audience side of live-gaming spectatorship. “Creativity is our only limit here,” enthuses Shewki.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | LIV, a startup making VR gaming more interactive for audiences, raises M from Oculus founder and Seedcamp

Pomona, an Indonesian startup that creates omnichannel marketing and sales software for consumer brands, announced today it has raised a Series A-2 of $3 million led by Vynn Capital. The round also included participation from new investors Ventech China and Amand Ventures, and returning ones Stellar Kapital and Central Capital Ventura.

(As for why it’s an A-2, co-founder and CEO Benz Budiman explained the company already raised an undisclosed pre-A round, which was reported in the media last year as a Series A. To avoid confusion about this funding becasue it is not a Series B, they are referring to it as an A-2.)

Founded in 2016 by Budiman and CTO Ari Suwendi, Pomona’s software enables brands to offer cashback incentives to Indonesian consumers and includes tools for analyzing customer engagement, offline sales conversion and the effectiveness of marketing and advertising campaigns. It was developed specifically for brands in two categories: consumer packaged goods, such as toiletries and cleaning supplies, and fast-moving consumer packaged goods, or items with a short shelf life and high turnover, like food and seasonal items.

The company currently works with more than 50 brands, including Unilever, Japfa, ABC President, Sosro, Frisian Flag and Sungai Budi.

Pomona’s new funding will be used to add new services, with the goal of becoming an end-to-end solution, says Budiman. “For brands, we want to provide more information and data points so they can better understand local Indonesian consumers and tailor their engagement strategies to improve outreach efficiency, cut costs and better address their needs.”

The company also has plans to expand into new markets in Southeast Asia, but is keeping which countries under wraps for now.

Pomona’s solutions let customers redeem cashback offers by scanning a receipt with the Pomona app, or its partners can use Pomona’s white-label solutions to create their own branded cashback rewards app. In addition to increasing sales, Pomona’s solutions can help increase offline-to-online conversion rates, as most purchases are still made in brick-and-mortar stores. This gives companies a new way to examine what motivates customer engagement and their purchasing behavior.

In a press statement, Vynn Capital founding partner Victor Chua said, “As a major driver for private consumption in Southeast Asia, Indonesia is an increasingly important market for global brands. Understanding the behavioral traits of local consumers is essential for brands entering and operating in this dynamic market as consumers become more educated and preferential in their spending options.”

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Indonesian startup Pomona raises million to help brands increase engagement with cashback offers

WeWork chief executive officer Adam Neumann is already rich, but soon all of the early employees and investors of the co-working giant will be too.

The business, now known as The We Company, has accelerated its plans to go public, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. WeWork is expected to unveil is S-1 filing next month ahead of a September initial public offering.

WeWork declined to provide comment for this story.

The New York-based company, valued at $47 billion earlier this year, has long been rumored to be plotting a massive IPO. The WSJ reports it’s now in the process of meeting with Wall Street banks to secure an asset-backed loan upwards of $6 billion in what could be an effort to downsize its upcoming stock offering. WeWork disclosed massive 2018 net losses of $1.9 billion in March on revenue of $1.8 billion. To convince Wall Street it’s a business worthy of their investment will be a challenge, to say the least. Seeking capital elsewhere ahead of the IPO manages expectations and ensures WeWork ultimately has the cash it needs to continue its global expansion. Here’s a look at WeWork’s expanding revenues and losses:

• WeWork’s 2017 revenue: $886 million
• WeWork’s 2017 net loss: $933 million
• WeWorks 2018 revenue: $1.82 billion (+105.4%)
• WeWork’s 2018 net loss: $1.9 billion (+103.6%)

WeWork has raised a total of $8.4 billion in a combination of debt and equity funding since it was founded in 2011. Its IPO is poised to become the second largest offering of the year behind only Uber, which was valued at $82.4 billion following its May IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.

WeWork is said to have initially filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO in December, in part so it was ready to hit the public markets if other avenues for cash fell through. The business is one of several tech unicorns to attract billions from the SoftBank Vision Fund. Recently, the Japanese telecom giant eyed a majority stake in the company worth $16 billion, but scaled back their investment down to $2 billion at the last minute.

WeWork, despite mounting losses, is growing — fast. The company established a 90% occupancy rate in 2018 as membership totals rose 116%, to 401,000.

Still, whether WeWork, backed by SoftBank, Benchmark, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity and Goldman Sachs, will be able to match its $47 billion valuation when it goes public this fall is questionable. Early investors will be sure to see a nice return, but late-stage investors may be nervous about their prospects.

Neumann, for his part, has reportedly cashed out of more than $700 million from his company ahead of the IPO. The size and timing of the payouts, made through a mix of stock sales and loans secured by his equity in the company, is unusual, considering that founders typically wait until after a company holds its public offering to liquidate their holdings.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | WeWork accelerates IPO plans, plots September listing

Customer reviews play a key role in helping people decide what to buy on consumer-focused marketplaces like Amazon or app stores, and the same tendency exists in the B2B world, where nearly half a trillion dollars is spent annually on software and IT purchases. TrustRadius, one of the startups capitalising on the latter trend with total feedback sessions today standing at close to 190,000 reviews, has now picked up a Series C of $12.5 million led by Next Coast Ventures with existing investors Mayfield Fund and LiveOak Ventures also participating.

The funding, which brings the total raised by TrustRadius to $25 million (modest compared to some of its competitors) will be used to build more partnerships and use cases for its reviews, as well as continue expanding that total number of users providing feedback.

In addition to its main site — which goes up against a huge number of other online software comparison services like TrustPilot, G2 Crowd, Owler, and many others — TrustRadius is already working with vendors like LogMeIn, Tibco and more (including a number of huge IT companies that have asked not to be named).

TrustRadius mainly works with them on two tracks: to source a wider range of reviews from their existing customer bases to improve their profiles on the site; and then to help them use those reviews in their own marketing materials. Partnerships like these form the core of TrustRadius’s business model: people posting reviews or using the site to read them access it for free.

Vinay Bhagat, founder and CEO of TrustRadius, believes that his company’s mission — to help IT decision makers vet software by tapping into feedback from other IT buyers — has found particular relevance in the current market.

“I think that gravity is on our side,” he said in an interview. “If you think about how the tech industry is evolving and getting things done, IT decisions are getting decentralized and moving out of the CIO’s office. Millennials are ageing into positions of authority, and it means that the way people had previously bought software — by way of salespeople or on the basis of analyst reports — are changing. There is pent-up demand to hear the roar of peers and that’s where we come in.”

User-generated reviews have come under a lot of criticism in recent times. Regulators have been going after companies for not being vigilant enough about policing their platforms for “fake” reviews, either planted to big up a product, or by rivals to knock it down, or coming from people who are being paid to put in a good word. The argument has been that the marketplaces hosting those reviews are still bringing in eyeballs and product conversions based on that feedback, so they are less concerned with the corruption even if it longer term can likely sour consumers on the trustworthiness of the whole platform.

That belief is not wholly true, of course: Amazon for one has recently been making a huge effort to improve trust, by going after dodgy reviewers and setting up systems to halt the trafficking of counterfeit goods.

And Bhagat argued to me that it doesn’t hold for TrustRadius, either. The company has a focused enough mandate — B2B software purchasing — within a crowded enough field, that losing trust by posting blindly positive reviews would get it nowhere fast.

At the same time, he noted that the company has held a firm line with its customers on making sure that the “truth” about a product is made clear even if it’s not completely rosy, in the hopes that they can use that to work on improvements, and also provide more balanced feed back at the least from existing customers in order to give a more complete picture. (It also, like other reviews sites, makes people who provide feedback do so using professional credentials like work emails and LinkedIn profiles.)

That line has so far carried it into relationships with a number of software companies, which are using reviews as a complement to their own sales teams, and the papers and analysis published by analysts like Gartner and Ovum and Forester, to reach people who are weighing up different options for their IT solutions.

“TrustRadius has become an integral part of today’s economic cycle”, said Bill Wagner, CEO of LogMeIn, in a statement. “Software buyers today need detailed reviews to make sure that the product works for a business professional like themselves. TrustRadius provides that in a transparent way, so buyers can make confident decisions, even about enterprise-grade software.”

The recent swing in the digital world towards data protection and people getting increasingly aware of how their own personal details are used in ways they never intended, has presented an interesting challenge for the world of online services. Most of us don’t like getting marketing and will generally opt out of any “yes, I consent to getting updates from XYZ and its partners!” boxes — if we happen to spot them amid the dark patterning of the net.

TrustRadius and companies like it have an opportunity through that, though: by targeting IT buyers who have to make complicated purchasing decisions and most likely more than one, and in a way that ensures each purchase works with the rest of an existing tech stack, they represent one of the rare cases of where a user might actually want to hear more.

Indeed, one of the company’s plans longer term is to continue developing how it can work with its users through that IT lifecycle by providing suggestions of software based on previous software purchases and also what that user’s feedback has been around a past purchase.

“From day one we have been deal with complex purchasing decisions,” Bhagat said. “Buying technology that will be used to run your business is not the same as buying an app that you use casually. It can be make or break for your company.”

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | TrustRadius, a customer-generated B2B software review platform, raises .5M

Genie AI, a legal tech startup and Entrepreneur First alumni, has raised £2 million in funding. The round is a combination of equity and a U.K. government grant, and will be used to continue development of the company’s “intelligent” contract editor for law firms and an upcoming product targeting GDPR compliance.

Leading the £1.2 million equity investment is Connect Ventures, with participation from a number of angel investors, including former President of the Supreme Court Lord Neuberger and Professor Jun Wang at UCL. The £800,000 grant was awarded by UK Research and Innovation.

“Lawyers always tell us ‘I know I’ve done something like that before,’ but in large firms it’s a real pain to dig past drafting out of emails, document management systems and the minds of senior lawyers,” says Genie AI co-founder and CEO Rafie Faruq. “SuperDrafter solves this by automatically curating relevant knowledge from around the firm, and recommending clauses to lawyers as they draft, in real time”.

The broader idea is that SuperDrafter can enable lawyers to benefit from the “collective intelligence” — both past and present — of an entire law firm. It does this by machine reading thousands of documents confidentially and then analyses variations of the same clause to deuce market standards and allow lawyers to negotiate the best deal for their clients.

In addition, Genie AI claims that SuperDrafter does not require a human to tag or train the required data. Instead, the algorithm “learns by itself”.

“When drafting documents, lawyers typically start from a template, a document from a negotiating party, or an “automated” first draft using a questionnaire. Next, in order to tailor or negotiate the contract as it goes back and forth, lawyers typically have to search for past wording or tweak certain clauses and there are always thousands of variations of the same clause,” explains Faruq.

“[Using SuperDrafter], lawyers can now do this in one click, by simply loading in a document and viewing recommended clauses for each part of the contract. This gives lawyers the collective intelligence of the firm at their fingertips”.

The upshot, says Faruq, is that Genie AI’s solution makes contract drafting not just significantly faster but also much more robust. “More interestingly, our clients are increasingly using SuperDrafter not just for efficiency, but to win the best deal in every matter,” he adds. “Contracts specify commercial relationships, and we can get you the best terms, predicted from hundreds of thousands of past examples”.

The intelligent contract editor is being piloted with law firms Clifford Chance, Pinsent Masons and Withers, where it is being used to draw up lengthy contracts within banking and finance. “We believe the complexity lends itself to AI-assisted drafting, where machines can augment lawyers with the collective intelligence of millions of past examples,” says Faruq.

Meanwhile, Genie AI is already working on a second product. Dubbed “Anonymiser”, the software can be used SuperDrafter or standalone and with will automatically redact confidential information from contracts so than companies can comply with GDPR regulation and preserve client confidentiality.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Legaltech startup Genie AI scores £2M seed for its ‘intelligent’ contract editor

The cyber libel trial against Maria Ressa, the CEO and executive editor of independent media startup Rappler, started today in Manila, in a case that will be closely watched because of its implications for press freedom in the Philippines. Also on trial is Reynaldo Santos Jr, a former researcher and writer for the site. If convicted, both potentially face years in jail.

Before co-founding Rappler, Ressa, a Time Magazine Person of the Year for her work exposing corruption and fighting misinformation, served as CNN’s bureau chief in Manila and then Jakarta. Ressa is an outspoken critic of the Philippine’s president, Rodrigo Duterte, and Rappler has often reported critically on Duterte’s administration. In turn, Duterte has accused Rappler of being funded by the CIA and publishing fake news.

Both Ressa and Santos were arrested earlier this year on cyber libel security charges for an article published in 2012 that reported on the alleged ties between Supreme Court Justice Renato Corona, who was impeached in 2011, and wealthy businessmen including Wilfredo Keng. Keng filed the cyber libel complaint against Ressa and Santos in 2017.

The five year gap between the publication of the article and Keng’s complaint is an important issue in the trial, because there is usually only a one-year prescriptive period for ordinary libel in the Philippines’ penal code. In order to charge Ressa and Santos, the Department of Justice extended that period to 12 years for cyber libel, which Rappler counsel J.J. Disini has argued could impact constitutionally-protected rights.

Prior to Ressa’s arrest, Rappler’s registration was revoked by the Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission, for allegedly breaking a law that prohibits overseas ownership of media companies, though Rappler said its investors, including Omidyar Network and North Bridge Media, used Philippine Depositary Receipts, which do not give voting rights or board membership and have also been used by other companies like ABS-CBN, the national broadcaster.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | The cyber libel trial against independent news startup Rappler’s CEO and one of its former writers starts in Manila

Weed may be legal in California, but the black market is still the top spot for buyers looking for bud on a budget.

Flower Co. graduated from Y Combinator’s latest class on the promise that they could cut customers better deals by focusing on partnering with growers directly to create their own house brands while pushing users to order ahead of time. The company calls itself the “Costco of cannabis.”

The company just announced the close of a $2.8 million seed round from investors including Slome Capital, Prehype, Rob Stavis, Adam Draper, Josh Abramson and Camille Hyde.

Even in California where weed has been legalized, the black market is still king due to the high prices buoyed by high taxes. Flower Co.’s CEO Ted Lichtenberger says the regulated market is just 1/4 the size of the unregulated market. Flower Co.’s ultimate goal is less focused on getting people to ditch their existing dispensary as much as they are focused on getting black market regulars to go legit thanks to the better deals and conveniences of their platform.

Part of building allegiance to the Flower Co. brand is the company’s membership plan. Anybody can make a purchase on the site, but members save up to 40% on purchases, a number that makes a big difference when you’re buying weed by the ounce. An ounce of “Forbidden Fruit” goes for $192 without a membership and $142 with one, for example. With a membership, the company’s “House Sativa” goes for $63 an ounce.

An annual membership to Flower Co. is $119, and in addition to the discounts, users get faster delivery and beta access to the company’s “private events and concert series.” The company just recently launched a two-day delivery service for customers in Sacramento.

The company is just flexing its muscles in a few markets in California, but is hoping that by scaling slowly they can be ready to attack new opportunities as the regulatory environment shifts.

“We understand that we’re in the first inning of what’s probably a pretty long game, because this industry, as it goes federally legalized is going to have another massive transition moment just like it’s having right now as it’s getting legalized and regulated in California,” Lichtenberger says. “So if we have a great understanding of our customers and stay focused on keeping them delighted, and then be nimble in the face of that change, then we can come out as the dominant player in the delivery market.”

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | The ‘Costco of cannabis’ raises .8 million for a membership weed delivery service

Uber and Lyft aren’t designed to transport people who need a little help getting out of the house or need someone to help get them from the doctor’s waiting room back to their home. While Uber, for example, has launched Uber Health to help patients get to their appointments, the drivers are not vetted with patient assistance in mind. This is where Onward comes in.

Onward, with $1.5 million in seed funding from Royal Street Ventures, Matchstick Ventures and JPK Capital, launched a few months ago in the San Francisco Bay Area to help seniors safely get from point A to point B. Unlike Uber and Lyft, Onward offers round-trip, door-to-door rides and aims to provide freedom for older adults who may feel isolated, Onward co-founder Mike Lewis told TechCrunch.

The idea for Onward emerged from Lewis’ experience with his mother-in-law who had Alzheimer’s. It got him and his co-founder, Nader Akhnoukh, thinking about the idea of aging in place and how older people may feel isolated as they become unable to do the tasks they’ve spent their whole lives doing, like driving.

“The minute you can’t do that, it’s sad and scary,” Lewis said.

Onward has three types of customers: older adults who are no longer able to drive, someone who can’t drive for medical reasons (surgeries, eye exams, etc.) and caregivers who are unable to provide transportation to their loved ones.

Similar to Uber and Lyft, Onward drivers are 1099 contractors, but a key difference is that they are paid hourly — at least $20 per hour. Currently, there are more than 25 drivers on board who are all trained in CPR, dementia, and have gone through a background check and car inspection.

Onward also ensures its drivers know how to fold wheelchairs, though, only some drivers have the ability to transport those in powered wheelchairs. This time next year, Onward expects to have hundreds of drivers. Lewis says he also expects the number of vehicles with the ability to transport people in powered wheelchairs to increase as the company grows.

For riders, they can expect to pay $35 per hour. The minimum charge for the trip is one hour, so this is definitely geared toward people who may need the driver to wait for them during a doctor’s appointment, for example. After the first hour, Onward charges by the minute.

That hourly fee gets riders round-trip rides with the driver waiting for you at the destination, door-to-door assistance at each stop and the ability to request favorite drivers.

Onward completed its first ride in March in the San Francisco Bay Area. For the rest of the year, Onward plans to focus on San Francisco as well as one other launch market. To date, Onward has completed more than 500 trips.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Onward raises .5 million to offer round-trip rides to older adults needing assistance

It’s that time of year again. When startup founders fret for weeks on end as the long-awaited Demo Day approaches. Investors pore through lists of startups participating in various accelerator programs and have their associates ping dozens of founders for coffee meetings.

Demo Day season is upon us. Soon Y Combinator’s latest cohort of startups will pitch to investors for two days, beginning August 19, and 500 Startups, another San Francisco-based accelerator program for early-stage companies, will host its own Demo Day on August 22.

We’ll report live from YC’s Demo Day next month. For now, here’s a closer look at all the startups finishing out 500 Startups’ latest program. As a reminder, through its four-month seed program, the 500 Startups seed fund invests $150,000 in participating companies in exchange for 6% equity. The companies below include a mix of fintech, digital health, edtech and e-commerce businesses, 33% of which 500 Startups says are women-led and 40% have Black or Latinx founders.

• Alluva: Rewards individual users for their blockchain and crypto price predictions.
• AMPAworks: An inventory management tool focused on hospitals. The startup uses computer vision AI to track and manage inventory in real time.
• BeatDapp: Helps music labels and artists track their songs to collect royalties by providing real-time audit reports of streaming-play counts.
• BlackCart: A try-before-you-buy app for fashion e-commerce stores.
• Blue Studios: The Peloton of STEM education focused on teaching 1 billion kids STEM skills.
• Blue Wire: A sports podcasting network.
• Bytez: Helps developers and data scientists work faster.
• Chemtech: An AI-product for manufacturing plant automatization.
• Crash: A tool to help people launch their career.
• Curie: A camera-based AI shopping assistant.
• Dispatchr: Helps electric utilities prevent wildfires, catastrophes and crippling outages.
• Docket: A system of record and workflow management SaaS for legal teams.
• EINO: An AI platform that produces predictive and historical insights on localized population movement and their intention in urban areas for enterprise business users.
• EZFarming: A marketplace that helps farmers finance their business and sell their produce.
• FitzyTV: An internet TV platform designed to help consumers watch and record all their streaming TV channels across multiple services.
• Gentem: A tool that provides instant claims reimbursements for physicians.
• Glyph: A digitally knit shoe company.
• Hearo Live: Turns passive media into a powerful, live social experience for games, sports, streaming and more.
• Heartex: Helps companies quickly build AI products and features.
• HYVE: Helps users navigate their social media universe by allowing them to follow more people.
• InnerTrends: A data science service for SaaS that uncovers insights in customer onboarding, retention and engagement without the need for data scientists.
• KIKI: The first app that pays you for having fun. A social marketplace where you can meet people, and buy and share experiences with them.
• Lucidact Health: An AI assistant for nurses and case managers to help them know what to do faster and eliminate errors.
• Nanno: The first on-demand childcare app that lets parents book vetted sitters nationwide.
• Nanogrid: Building advanced cost calculation technology that enables home energy companies to ensure their customers get the most value out of their products.
• NewoldStamp: An email signatures platform that turns every employee’s email into a marketing tool.
• Renaissance: Allows users to earn loyalty points by listening to music.
• Resonado: Reimagining audio systems for businesses with patented Flat Core Speaker technology.
• RestAR: 3D capturing and product visualization for e-commerce using AI with any mobile device.
• Rovilus: Developing safe and reliable battery packs for industrial vehicles and light electric aircraft.
• Send4: Enables retailers to offer a seamless post-purchase experience to their customers.
• Sharebee: A vertically integrated marketplace where anyone can book moving and storage in a couple of minutes for half of the traditional price.
• Tradespace: A global IP marketplace for companies to buy, sell, license and invest in technology.
• Visionful: Connects smart cities and autonomous vehicles leveraging AI and computer vision to provide full automation for parking and traffic monitoring.
• Voogy: An IP to domain name database that allows companies to track and discover the anonymous web visitors that do not convert into their sales funnel.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Meet 500 Startups’ 25th batch of startups