MOUNTAIN VIEW — Venture firm and startup accelerator program 500 Startups is holding its latest Demo Day today and over the next five hours, 34 early-stage and 9 post-seed companies presented in front of investors for a chance at receiving additional funding to get them to their next milestone.
At the beginning, self-described “Sith Lord” Dave McClure offered his usual greeting, touting the success of his firm and the class. Of note, 39 percent of companies were from outside the United States, a decrease from the previous batch. He also hinted that two new microfunds would be launched later this year, following along with previous microfunds in Turkey and other parts of the world.
Out of the 34, these are our 10 favorite companies from this batch:
Aircall
MapJam
VillageDefense
Lab Sensor Solutions
GrowBot
VillageDefense
TopHatch
Havenly
Lab Sensor Solutions
43Layers
Still want to know more about the Batch 14 startups? Here’s some more information about all the companies that presented (in order of appearance):
AutoLotto
AutoLotto bills itself as an easy way to play the lottery. Using your mobile device you can buy lottery tickets with just a tap, establish rules to autoplay when the jackpot is a certain amount, play with friends or coworkers, and more. It’s free to use.
The company was founded in March 2015 and has raised $2 million from investors including the founder of DraftKing and the San Francisco 49ers. It’s targeting a $485 billion annual global market and started in New Hampshire to provide a legal, safe, and secure marketplace for users. AutoLotto is looking to expand to 5 more cities by the end of the year It has a waitlist of 100,000 people.
Aircall
Aircall wants to help businesses have an easy way to create and manage phone support. The France-based company allows its customers to use the Aircall app to run a virtual customer support team. It’s used daily by 500 customers, generating monthly recurring revenue of $35,000. The company is growing 35 percent monthly.
Built for teamwork, it connects to Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Desk, Zendesk, and others while also letting workers communicate across any device. Aircall is targeting a $40B addressable market.
BetterView
BetterView is using drones to scan roofs in the United States in order to uncover any potential problems. The data gathered is reviewed and any issues are addressed, which the company says makes them more proactive and tends to avoid any major catastrophes. Putting someone on a roof to inspect it can be dangerous and expensive. Roofing services in the US is a $38 billion annual market. Drone-based inspections allow people to look at roofs without having to endanger workers.
The company says it’s been growing 40 percent monthly and has seen recurring revenue of $22,000 since October.
Urjakart.com
A business-to-business marketplace in India (think the online Home Depot), Urjakart.com helps its customers with home improvement projects. If you’re looking to make renovations, this service will convert a Request for Quotation into an invoice and help organize the supply chain. With 20 percent margins, it has annualized GMV of $1 million and is growing 32 percent month-over-month. When it comes to home improvement, the comapny says that it’s business-to-business and is targeting a $50 billion market.
Pacifica Labs
Pacifica Labs is a mental health app provider for consumers. Its first self-titled app focuses on stress management and has over 375,000 registered users. It has $8,000 in monthly recurring revenue. The company’s first app is around stress and anxiety management that’s targeting the 40 million adults in the U.S. that have this disorder, but only 1 out of 3 will actively seek help for.
The company is pursuing clinical trials at the University of California, San Francisco and one other institution.
Stamplay
If you’re a developer that wants to build app backends using APIs as the building block, then Stamplay may be of interest. It calls itself the development platform for the API-economy era. It makes backend work mostly visual to paste API through a point and click manner. Since opening up public beta, it has been growing 25 percent with more than 6,000 developers signned up. It’s targeting a $30 billion market. It has raised $450,000 in funds.
SweepSouth
SweepSouth lets you book and pay for home cleaning services within emerging markets. It started off in South Africa. In emerging markets, it’s time-consuming or expensive to find competent, trusted domestic cleaners. The platform reduces the time to minutes while also uses intelligent algorithms to help match you with cleaners. It’s targeting a untapped market of 1.1 billion people with a growing middle class and has a vast source of experience but unemployed domestic cleaners.
So far, it has raised $450,000 in funds and says it has a monthly growth rate of 50 percent, generating $25,000 in revenue each month, thanks to a satisfaction rating of 80 percent.
MapJam
MapJap provides a mapping platform for users to create more personalized and customizable online maps. It has raised close to $1 million in seed funding and has formed partnerships with The Huffington Post, Weebly, Eventbrite, and other businesses. It has grown 500 percent this month by people who don’t want to create custom maps and deal with the API and coding. MapJam relies on a drag-and-drop user interface that lets companies build maps quickly and without needing much technical expertise.
Growbot
Growbot is a bot within Slack that provides lets people collect feedback while at work in real-time. It’s a performance management platform for the next generation of the workforce that’s evolving the standard employee review. It integrates into the messaging platforms that companies are already using to provide three forms of feedback: appreciation, coaching, and evaluation.
To date, companies like Adaptly and HBO have signed up to use Growbot that have resulted in monthly active usage of 55 percent with new user growth increasing weekly at 7 percent.
Decisive Health
If you’ve ever had that problem understanding your bill, Decisive Health says that it’ll provide some clarity for all the medical bills that you receive. The service combines your insurance benefits information with what the doctor’s insurance-negotiated rates are and provides a medical bill that’s easily understood all while you’re still in the doctor’s office.
Decisive Health says that in the U.S. $44.6 billion in medical care winds up not being paid and it may stem from people not knowing what they’re going to be charged when they go in for an examination. Within two months of selling, the company says it has $45,000 booked in annual revenue and is seeing a 70 percent profit margin.
Kudobuzz
Kudobuzz is a “content marketing SaaS solution” that provides small- and medium-sized businesses with ways to optimize their website, market it, and create tools to engage their customers through reviews, coupons, commenting, forums, and more. It’s main tool is to help businesses take reviews left on their social media accounts and curate them onto their website.
To date, Kudobuzz has helped 6,000 companies worldwide across Wix, Storeenvy, WordPress, Shopify, and other platforms to aggregate 1 million verified reviews. It says it has earned $15,000 in monthly recurring revenue, but it’s far from done: Kudobuzz is targeting 22 million more businesses in the U.S. across 20 “do-it-yourself” e-commerce platforms.
EyesOnFreight
Matching shippers with logistics providers, EyesOnFreight plays the middleman by letting you submit requests for quotes to carriers while also keeping track of where their packages are. The global logistics market is $4 trillion and most people think about FedEx, UPS, etc, but there are 400,000 companies that do this, but there’s no transparency in pricing or consistency. EyesOnFreight will match you with a provider based on your need and preference.
The company says that in 2015, it’ll realize net revenue of $72,000 and estimates in 2016 it’ll have $210,000. It’s starting out by focusing on the oil and heavy machinery industry.
MonkeyLearn
MonkeyLearn enables machines to better understand the human language. Through the use of machine learning, companies and developers will be able to discern more information from text-based content like tweets, reviews, chats, emails, etc. In short, it wants to make it simple for any software developer to build their own machine learning algorithm. The company has already signed up 7,000 users and is growing 10 percent month over month. It’s seeing $8,000 in monthly revenue and that’s growing 35 percent.
VillageDefense
Protect your neighborhood with VillageDefense, a system that residents can use to share information about crime in their area. To date there are over 3,500 neighborhoods on the platform with 30 new neighborhoods added very day. Dubbed the Waze for the neighborhood watch, Village Defense
Neighbors are using email, text, and other slow communications but it’s not working for neighborhood watch. When a crime happens, push one button on the app and all the neighbors will get notified. Users are contributing follow up information and photos.
Wherever you are in the world, you should be able to tap into the network of people around you to stay safe, just like Waze lets you stay safe in traffic.
Baker
Baker makes the cannabis-buying experience easier by letting dispensaries make every one of their customers a VIP. Currently when you buy cannabis, you’re encountering long lines and when you get to the front, you’re likely to find that the supply has run out. With its apps, users can browse for what they want and order ahead. Then when they get to the store, it’s ready for them to pick up. It’ll also allow merchants to provide discounts, free products, and more through the app.
To date, the company says that it’s seeing a monthly growth rate of 69 percent, with $31,147 in revenue coming in October alone. Baker touts itself as a software company and that it won’t touch the actual product. It has a monthly licensing fee range between $99 and $499.
YOU-app
YOU-app aims to help you live a healthier life by taking small baby steps to get you to that point. It relies on neuroscience and psychology to help you overcome behavioral barriers that may typically block you from achieving your goal. The company’s app has been downloaded over 200,000 times and aims to help its 26,000 monthly users, mostly women, take actions around being mindful, food, moving, and love. So far, 95 percent of active users have reported positive behavioral change.
Lab Sensor Solutions
Lab Sensor Solutions is a provider of Internet of Things sensors for the healthcare market. The goal is to ensure quality control and accuracy for all smart healthcare-related devices to protect patients. In the past, labs spend billions on automation equipment, but there’s a lack of care when it comes to samples — $1.6 billion is wasted due to spoiled samples. Lab Sensor Solutions uses its hardware plus SaaS platform to measure temperature to protect sample quality.
The company charges $25 per month per sensor and is seeing a 85 percent gross margin. So far it has partnered with 3 labs to deploy 125 sensors and is projecting to have more than 2.5 million distributed by 2019.
Junior Explorers
Learn all about the wild and nature with Junior Explorers. Available in four countries, the company focuses on trying to “inspire the next generation of environmental stewards.” Junior Explorers doesn’t take 100 percent of the profit — it returns a percentage back to conservation efforts. Since joining 500 Startups, the company says that it has generated $325,000 in revenue with margins of 65 percent.
Junior Explorers is targeting the education technology and gaming markets worth $45 billion. It already has partnerships with institutions like the San Francisco Zoo, the Nature Conservancy, and the Aquarium by the Bay. The company has raised $740,000 in funding.
StackShare
Calling itself the LinkedIn for the SaaS industry, StackShare is a community of developers and engineers to help discover the latest software being used by companies. More than 2,500 companies have signed up and are sharing the tools that they use. StackShare reports that since joining 500 Startups, its community has grown weekly at 7 percent with more than 100,000 developers and engineers registered. It makes money by delivering traffic to the websites of software vendors.
ZendyHealth
ZendyHealth bills itself as the “Priceline for medical services” in that it’ll allow you to shop smarter for health, dental, and beauty supplies. Patients are struggling to pay their medical bills and often try to work with physicians to minimize costs because there’s just a lack of transparency. Providers are willing to accept bids from ZendyHelath because it’s much easier than having to deal with insurance companies.
The company reports that it is growing 25 percent monthly and has a transactional volume of $250,000. It has saved patients $100,000. Already it has partnered with two health saving accounts and expects to add 10 more in the future. ZendyHealth previously raised $280,000 from its founders and has raised $1 million in angel funding.
43Layers
43Layers lets event planners create their own decorations and gifts for any occasion without needing design or manufacturing experience — it’s like bringing your Pinterest board to life and it’s targeting the $30 billion wedding industry first. Users can either submit their own design or use one of the company’s independent designers to help. All items are then produced using a 3D printer.
So far the company is growing 290 percent monthly with an average order value of $240. 43Layers takes 35 percent for its fees, but so far there’s a repeat purchase rate of 29 percent.
Datasembly
Datasembly relies on Big Data to help companies better understand pricing around the world. Its service crawls the web to find out the current cost of good and it’s starting with the grocery industry. The company says until now, it was difficult to curate this pricing data due to technological challenges such as rate limiting, IP blocking, and more. However, Datasembly seems to have found a way because it already has generated $12,000 in recrurring monthly revenue and is seeing a 30 percent month over month growth rate. What’s more, it boldly announced that it’ll be profitable by the end of the year.
Apptuto
Focused on education, Apptuto utilizes gamification and social learning to help students learn finance and accounting. The company says that many people fail current standardized tests not because they’re difficult, but that there’s so much information to consume and comprehend. Apptuto says that with its service 50 percent more students wind up passing than those that don’t use it.
The company focuses on motivation and engagement using game mechanics. Since launching in March, 4,000 students have enrolled and it’s growing 25 percent monthly. It has closed corporate sales with PricewaterhouseCoopers in a $350,000 deal. Apptuto is also working on a near-term pipeline that’s worth $3 million. To date it has raised $500,000 in funding.
Saint Harridan
Saint Harridan is a fashion company focused on the female and transgender community. In a Kickstarter campaign, it raised $137,000 from 1,100 to fund its journey across the U.S. where it opened 64 pop-up shops that generated $360,000 in retail sales with a 65 percent margin. It’s targeting a $8 billion market. and has worked with clothing retailer Brooks Brothers to create a men’s suit for women’s bodies.
What it wants to do is create a Betabrand-like model for women. Its first product was a vest that generated $15,000 in sales just in the first week. Next it produced a pair of shoes that quickly sold out in just 10 hours. Saint Harridan has 6 more products scheduled in its pipeline.
Fuzzy.io
Fuzzy.io is an API provider that strives to provide developers with resources to build “decision-making artificial intelligence” without needing to hire a data scientist. The company says that by 2020, every software company will need to incorporate artificial intelligence into their business. But this will be a huge hurdle for most teams due to the high expense of finding talent — most solutions require a Ph.D. data scientist, tons of data, and capital. Fuzzy.io claims to take a unique approach through its API that gives artificial intelligence for cheap. The company has signed 15 beta customers for its trial, including Intel Security, Breather, and UpCounsel.
TruckTrack
TruckTrack is a SaaS-based company that lets trucking companies better monitor their drivers’ performance. It’s targeting an industry with 15 million trucks and $600 billion in revenue annually. The company wants to change the current way companies are managing their business — by pen and paper or through an Excel spreadsheet. TruckTrack has created a mobile app for drivers to track their progress and even help them get paid 50 percent faster. The company says that 88 companies have signed up for its trial program and it’s forming partnerships with trucking associations, driver schools, and freight brokers.
RemitBee
An online and mobile money transfer company, RemitBee lets people send money to their friends and loved ones in multiple countries. It turns out that while people send a lot of money overseas, only about 7 percent do so by mobile. RemitBee seeks to take on the market leaders by letting users do so using devices they’re comfortable with. It’s now in 7 countries and is looking to rapidly expand to 45 in the future. It’s growing 45 percent month-over-month with wallet funded transfers.
ConcertWith.me
Concert With Me is a platform to help artists market their events. The music industry is a $40 billion industry and in order to make fans more engaged, they need to have a full-stack solution and that’s where Concert With Me hopes to fit in. The company doesn’t take money from artists but from ticket sales — think Zenefits for concerts. 180,000 music fans are using the service monthly and 17,000 buyers were sent to websites to purchase concert tickets just in the last month. What’s more, $10,000 in direct ticket sales were generated in just the first two weeks.
StreetHawk
StreetHawk helps you with marketing automation without sacrificing your existing analytics provider. No matter whether you’re using Mixpanel, Flurry, Segment.io, Snowplow, or another offering, it’s difficult to rebuild the data — there’s incredible ramp up time to get the necessary data to make effective decisions. StreetHawk requires no SDK and apps that use it will receive quick insights without any delays. The company says that apps that have used its service saw a 150 percent uplift after 3 days.
GiftStarter
GiftStarter facilitates group gifting through the use of micropayments. First targeting the baby market, if you’re buying a baby shower gift, you’re not likely to buy a cheap gift, but probably something that costs a bit of money. Why should you have to put all of it in yourself — just have friends chip in. The company has raised $550,000 in funding and is seeing a monthly growth rate of 75 percent in the number of gifts being “started” on the site.
Pipefy
Pipefy enables processes and workflows to be created easily that’ll help small- and medium-sized businesses better manage their daily lives. More than 12,000 companies use the service since its launch 6 months ago. The goal is to reduce the pain, cost, and friction of setting up management software like CRMs, helpdesks, task management solutions, and more. Instead, Pipefy empowers managers to make decisions and establish workflows that work for them with relatively little hassle. The service provides templates with pre-made processes that managers can find, import, and customize to their needs without requiring technical experience.
Encore
Encore is a curator of content that uses artificial intelligence to provide insights on marketing and public relations. While it’s practically impossible for a single person to keep up with all the chatter going on in the world of social media and elsewhere, Encore claims that its service will sift through the noise and alert you on possible opportunities and threats. We all know that positive news is all good, but one single negative note can have lasting effects on a business. The company has $21,000 in monthly recurring revenue with a pipeline growth of 4x.
TopHatch
TopHatch is the creator of a increasingly popular design app called Concepts. More than 55,000 designers use this tool which is a combination of AutoCad and Photoshop. To date its freemium app has captured $200,000 in sales and has a free-to-pay conversion rate of 12 percent. What possibly makes this appealing is that designers are able to create works on tablets instead of relying on their desktop.
Havenly
Havenly is bringing personalized e-commerce to the home. Targeted at those who wish to have an interior designer without paying the exorbitant pricing, Havenly lets users introduce themselves and a design will be created of their home. If they like it, they can buy the furniture and items shown right from Havenly’s website at an affordable price. It has a $13 million annualized gross market value with $5 million in revenue. The company believes it can be appealing to young professionals who have purchased $30 billion in home goods and also to interior designers, where 10,000 are being underutilized across the U.S.
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