Venture: Upcoming Startups
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Despite a tumultuous year for the markets, certain firms and sectors have capitalized on this black swan event and have experienced strong growth. In this upcoming year we are likely to see even more firms seeking to find profit in the ‘new normal.’ As the ways in which we work and interact have been altered, technology in myriad forms has sought to ease the transition, and in doing so has accelerated the adoption of technology (e.g. working remotely) into our lives. With this in mind, I have curated six startups to keep an eye on in 2021.
Notion is a workspace app that aims to provide better ‘office workflow’ and has gained popularity as of recent. The app helps bring together documents, databases, to-do lists, and other productivity tools in a centralized digital space. Based in San Francisco, founders Ivan Zhao and Simon Last have been able to accumulate $18.7 million of capital, while rejecting other VC funding to ensure they can stay true to the firm’s mission. The firm currently offers their products for free until a certain amount of data usage is reached. Notion is naturally poised to do well as workplaces become more digitized due to COVID, and will have to continue to market themselves against competitors keen to enter the growing space.
LumApps: Much like Notion, LumApps seeks to transform the way organizations communicate, collaborate, and share knowledge. Founded by Dustin Moskovitz (Facebook cofounder) and Justin Rosenstien (Facebook engineer), LumApps is more solution based than Notion, allowing their products to be tailored to specific organizations’ needs. LumApps is attempting to corner the market in internal and external communication, competing with the likes of Trello, Slack and Salesforce Quip. LumApps has received large investments since its founding, and many speculate the firm will reach ‘unicorn status’ in the near future.
Tessian, is a UK startup aims to provide both email privacy and security. Tessian’s mission is to use their platform to analyze millions of data points across your organization’s email network to detect patterns of behavior and surface misaddressed emails. When the software’s algorithm detects potential sensitive information or an unusual email address, it will ask the user to confirm whether they would like to send the email. This is naturally in an effort to reduce the information leaked through phishing campaigns. Currently over 70 British law firms are using this platform in order to protect their email networks. Privacy is an ever present burden in the digital age, and Tessian aims to reduce that stress. Currently they have raised $42 million in Series B funding and are soon planning to embark on global expansion.
The Confluent Platform allows for a smooth constant stream of data to your devices. This software helps developers manage system and application messaging at high volume, and adds real-time streaming data into their apps. This software has proven its worth with companies like Netflix for real time monitoring, LinkedIn for activity stream data and operational metrics, and Spotify as a part of its log delivery system. These are just a few of Confluent’s prominent clients, and the firm continues to grow its customer base at a rapid pace. Confluent recently announced a $250 million Series E funding bringing their total valuation at somewhere around $4.5 billion.
With people seeking to socially distance as often as possible, SmartRent allows potential tenants to take private, self-guided tours of vacant apartments. This is done by utilizing a smart locks system that is placed throughout the house to ensure the safety of the current tenants and possible future ones. Allowing viewers to register and then take a tour by receiving a virtual key for entry. This company has currently produced 90,000 units and is projecting 300,000 by year’s end. CEO Lucas Haldeman is leading this new venture and is hoping to gain more capital in the coming months.
Trusted Health’s mission is to help match the nurses to the hospitals that are in need of their skills. Amidst the pandemic healthcare has been strained, and innovators are trying to find new solutions to address old, but exacerbated problems. One of these innovators is Lennie Sliwinski, whose mother is a nurse and was constantly faced with the issue of some hospitals being wildly understaffed, while others had a surplus of help. Upwards of 1,500 hospitals have registered on the site, and Trusted believes as the firm grows they can also address the ‘matching’ of other healthcare workers with hospitals. Co-founder Matt Pierce stated that “We’ve seen an unprecedented increase in signups and a threefold increase in open roles in our platform at the pandemic’s peak.”