It’s that time to gaze into the crystal ball and pick the 2017 5 Atlanta-based startups to watch. This year’s fantastic five span the gamut; offering new ways to automate and streamline industries from trucking and logistics to commercial solar panel installations.
Making solar power economical and working in more places is the name of the game at Quest Renewables. Founded in April 2014 by former Coke executive Norman “Finn” Findley, and former SolarCity executives Beau Baldock and Will Arnold, the company is the maker of QuadPod Canopy™, a modular solar racking system that competes in the $420 million solar racking industry estimated to grow to $1.2 billion in 2022.
Leveraging intellectual property developed at Georgia Tech as a result of the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, the QuadPod system reduces the cost of labor and installation by 50 percent, speeds up installation three-fold while doubling power production. With installations in three states and growing, Quest quadrupled revenues in 2016. The company is on pace to double the number of employees and increase revenue seven-fold in 2017.
In 2016, Quest received a round of funding from GRA Venture Fund, LLC, a private investment fund created to help finance promising companies emerging from Georgia’s universities. Quest was featured the June 2016 edition of the newsletter. The company is headquartered at the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) in Midtown and is an ATDC Signature company.
R2 Trucking Solutions(R2TS) is on a mission to modernize the transportation and logistics sector. More specifically, the company is aggressively pursuing the diversity transportation and logistics segment which is estimated at $96 billion.
The company grew top-line revenue from six-digits in the fourth quarter of 2016 to seven-digits in the first quarter of 2017. According to company officials, the company is on track to grow monthly recurring revenue (MRR) four-fold in 2017.
Co-founded in mid-2016 by Amari Ruff and Lucius French, R2TS has developed a technology platform that includes route and load optimization, as well as billing and disbursement. CTO Chad Ruff, formerly of SalesFusion, and president Michelangelo Ho, most recently of the Advanced Technology Development Center, complete the executive management team.
The company’s proprietary technology matches enterprises (shippers) with diversity initiatives to minority business enterprise-certified (MBE) carriers. R2TS’ MBE-certified status, superior technology, and an exclusive relationship with the 8,000-member strong National Minority Trucking Association lets it compete effectively for diversity contracts of all sizes.
R2TS recently closed on more than half of a $2 million funding round. Plans for 2017 include a re-branding to “Sudu” in February 2017, doubling the number of employees and growing its base of diversity carriers. The company is headquartered at the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) in Midtown and is an ATDC Signature company.
Sequr wants to turn your smartphone into the ultimate key that unlocks the door(s) to your home and workplace. According to co-founder and chief operating officer Michael Maxsenti, the company is “helping to define the future of building infrastructure and access control for the next generation of work spaces.”
Since inception in early 2016, the company has made significant strides securing a finalist spot at the 2016 Business Launch competition and was selected to participated in the highly competitive inaugural TechStars Atlanta accelerator program.
The last 12 months saw the company make a hard pivot that yielded more than promising outcomes.
From initially pitching the idea of temporary call-box access to visitors of multi-family buildings, to now providing wireless visitor management and physical access control technology to owners of commercial and multi-family buildings, commercial property managers, and individual businesses, Sequr’s product has indeed resonated with its intended audience. Since launching it’s product in September, it signed up 22 customers and is on track to more than double annual recurring revenue in 2017.
Based in Atlanta Tech Village, Sequr has raised $325,000 from Atlanta Ventures in February of 2016 and recently closed a $1.75 million seed round co-led by Knoll Ventures, Ellis Capital and Tech Square Ventures. The company plans to add up to seven new employees by the end of March 2017.
Sumo Scheduler provides the first enterprise appointment scheduling application built native to the Salesforce platform. The company’s customers are sales and customer success teams using Salesforce. These companies’ customers and prospects use the white labeled Sumo app to easily schedule appointments with company representatives most able to help them at a time that is most convenient to them.
Led by CEO Jason North, a former Atlanta resident, the company was founded in the West Coast eight years ago as Forcebrain, a Salesforce consultancy. With feedback from clients, the company developed Sumo Scheduler and rebranded to Sumo Scheduler when it moved from the West Coast to Alpharetta, Ga. in 2016.
Since releasing the appointment scheduler application in early 2016, more than a dozen companies have signed up with more in the pipeline. The currently bootstrapped company has a team of five and is looking to add more members to keep up with demand.
ThingTech provides IoT technology that enables companies to track and optimize usage and performance of heavy equipment, and field assets as well as their mobile workforce, in real time. The company serves industries such as transportation and construction, that own, operate, and maintain vehicles, assets, equipment, and infrastructure.
Since its founding in 2014, ThingTech has acquired 30 customers in both the commercial and government sectors and the state of Delaware and Fulton County, Ga. are ThingTech customers. In 2016, the company achieved seven-digit annual recurring revenue and expects to triple ARR in 2017.
Leading the company are co-founders Tim Quinn(CEO), Brian Corcoran(president), both formerly of RouteMatch Software, former PGi iMeet technical lead Vladimir Mijatovic(CTO) and David Churchill, vice president of technology.
To date, ThingTech has raised $800,000 from private individuals. The company is currently headquartered in Atlanta Tech Village but has plans to move to Armour Yards located midway between Buckhead and Midtown to accommodate its expanding team. It plans to add 10 new team members in 2017.
JANUARY 2017 NEWSLETTER
FEATURE: Atlanta’s 5 Startups to Watch in 2017
NOTEWORTHY: Magnificient 7 – Top Series A Deals of 2016
VOICES: Ted Schlein, Tom Noonan Discussion Highlights