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These 10 early startups you've never heard of made the biggest buzz among VCs last quarter and raised hundreds of millions of dollars
These 10 early startups you've never heard of made the biggest buzz among VCs last quarter and raised hundreds of millions of dollars
Rob PriceAug 29, 2018, 19:55 IST
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Next-generation environmental monitoring. Neural interface technology. Space catapults.
These are some of the far-out visions being pursued by a promising bunch of startups that might just be the business titans of tomorrow.
In a recent research note circulated to clients, Goldman Sachs highlighted the ten "software and internet" startups that had raised the most Series A investment in the second quarter of 2018, based on data collected by venture capital monitoring firm CB Insights.
Series A funding is some of the very first investment companies will receive in their life-cycle - right after seed or angel funding - indicating that it's still early days for these firms. But these young firms still collectively raised more than $400 million in the last three months, in industries ranging from healthcare to real estate to aeronautics.
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There's no telling yet whether they will all be able to achieve their heady dreams - but together they offer a glimpse at what the world's top investors are betting will be the technologies and products that will transform our world in the years to come.
10. Caresyntax ($20 million) is providing clinicians with more data.
Caresyntax is focused in the medical space, and provides clinicians with data analytics to "identify deviations from benchmarks in processes and outcomes, "address workflow efficiency bottlenecks," and more.
It was founded in 2013 in Germany by Dennis Kogan and Björn von Siemens before expanding to the US in 2017. In June 2018 it got a $20 million cash injection from healthcare AI investment fund Surgical.AI.
9. Redaptive ($20 million) is improving customers' energy efficiency.
San Francisco startup Redaptive snagged $20 million in venture capital funding in April 2018 from real estate services and investment firm CBRE Group, as well as ENGIE New Ventures and GXP Investments.
So what does it do? Redaptive helps make corporate clients' facilities more energy efficient, billing itself as a "leading provider of commercial Efficiency-as-a-Service."
"What makes our program unlike any other is that Redaptive makes the investment in your facilities, takes on all project execution and technology performance risk and covers maintenance costs, it says on its website. "Once we have designed and installed efficiency upgrades, you only pay for actual metered savings at a level that ensures you see immediate operating savings on day one."
It was cofounded in 2013 by Goldman Sachs veteran John Rhow, its co-CEO, and Ryan Martineau, SVP, Channel Sales.
8. Medici Technologies ($22 million) is building what it calls the "WhatsApp of Healthcare."
Medici Technologies is building an app that lets patients message their doctors from their smartphones — calling itself the "WhatsApp of Healthcare."
7. KaiOS Technologies ($22 million) makes a lightweight mobile operating system for emerging markets.
KaiOS builds an operating system for budget feature phones that aren't capable of running full-fledged smartphone software like the Android OS. KaiOS has its own app store and is targeted at emerging markets, and aims to be on 100 million phones worldwide by the end of 2018.
6. Aclima ($24 million) monitors air pollution and collects environmental data.
Aclima uses sensors to to monitor and quantify pollution and air quality, letting businesses and organizations map their emissions and act on the environmental data.
"Aclima’s methods, grounded in strong science and peer-reviewed research, achieve up to 100,000 times greater spatial resolution than traditional EPA practices, with comparable data quality," it claims.
5. CTRL-labs ($28 million) is building hardware that will let people control computers with thought alone.
CTRL-Labs wants to let people control computers with their brains.
The New York startup, founded in 2015, is working on neural interface technology — that is, hardware that allows people to interact with computers and machines using only their minds, including a wrist-worn prototype that aims to replace keyboards.
4. Perch ($30 million) wants to revolutionize the house-selling process, by buying customers' homes outright within 24 hours then re-selling them.
Perch is a startup that aims to streamline the house-selling process, promising its users they wil "receive a market-price offer for your home in 24 hours at no cost or obligation to you."
It works by directly buying customers' homes itself, then re-selling them. It currently operates in one market — San Antonio, Texas — and raised $30 million in May 2018 to fuel its expansion.
CEO Court Cunningham previously worked as CEO of marketing startup Yodle between 2007 and 2016.
3. Spinlaunch ($35 million) is building space catapults. Yes, you read that right.
SpinLaunch is a far-out startup that wants to fling objects into space — literally.
It wants to build "space catapults" (as Fortune put it) that will throw satellites into space, eliminating the need for the expensive propulsion systems needed today to escape earth's gravitational pull.
In June 2018, it was thrown $35 million in Series A funding from some top-tier investors including GV, Kleiner Perkins, and Airbus Ventures. The first launch is penciled in for 2022.
It was founded in 2014 by CEO Jonathan Yaney, and for much of its life it has operated in "stealth" mode, avoiding all publicity.
2. Figure ($50 million) plans to put home equity loans on the blockchain.
Figure, founded by ex-SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, aims to use the blockchain to speed up home equity loans.
Based in San Francisco, it has yet to launch, but that hasn't stopped it raising a cool $50 million from investors including Ribbit Capital, DCM Ventures, and Peter Thiel's Mithril Capital, Bloomberg reported in April 2018.
1. AutoLab AI ($153.4 million) is keeping quiet on what it's working on — but it could be the future of manufacturing.
AutoLab AI is seriously under-the-radar — but it's managed to bring in some serious cash.
What little information there is about the "stealth" Palo Alto, California startup comprises a few corporate and trademark filings, and a report from Axios detailing some its massive funding, and the fact it has 400 employees and a focus on "manufacturing."
There are varying figures quoted on its total funding raised: Axios quotes it as $200 million, while IEEE Spectrum cites an SEC filing with a $163 million figure, and CB Insights pegs it at $153.4 million. Whatever the exact amount, it has clearly managed to quietly bring in a boatload of cash.