Results: 12 Santa Cruz Startups We Watched in 2021
Nestled between the mountains and the sea, Santa Cruz is unique. Slightly alternative, different, with an innovative spirit paralleled only by the strength of our community. The startup swell is strong here. While ideas rise and fall with the tides, companies small and large continue to define the future.
The trials of 2020 introduced challenges in many forms, yet our startups went above and beyond. Our tech community continues to receive funding, making rapid progress, and turning its important visions into reality. The criteria for startups we selected included having been founded within the last 5-7 years, and actively hiring and employing in Santa Cruz. They also demonstrated market and customer traction.
1. Ambient Photonics
Focus: Breakthrough energy harvesting technology unlocking limitless possibilities for self-powered connected devices.
2020 Milestones: Completed proof of concept self-powered IOT devices with several global electronics companies
2021 Goals: Break ground on Santa Cruz pilot manufacturing location for our low-light energy harvesting solar cells. Seeking to close a Series A funding round. Currently hiring electrical engineers with energy harvesting and IOT expertise. More hiring to come!
2021 Results: More than 1…
Entered into a strategic partnership with Universal Electronics, Inc. (NASDAQ: UEIC) to bring Ambient Photonics energy harvesting technology to the Smart Home ecosystem. UEI produces over 120 million remote controls a year and is a global leader in other key Smart Home devices. (https://ambientphotonics.com/ambient-photonics-and-universal-electronics-inc-partnership)
Successfully concluded a Part I application to the US Department of Energy for a proposed $162M loan facility and was selected to invite a Part II application. This selection indicates that Ambient has passed the technical qualification, demonstrating the potential to offset greenhouse gas emissions and create hundreds of jobs for U.S. workers. (https://ambientphotonics.com/ambient-invited-to-phase-2-of-162m-doe-loan-program)
2022 Results (yes, already!): Our customer Universal Electronics announced that they will show their new ETERNA remotes featuring Ambient technology at CES 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada (https://www.uei.com/news/ces-2022-press-announcement)
2022 Goals: Break ground on California manufacturing facility and corporate HQ. Begin commercial operations of new high volume, automated production system.
2. Cruz Foam
Focus: Supplying the world with eco-friendly packaging.
2020 Milestones: Identified product market fit with eco-friendly packaging, several Fortune 100 clients in POC. Hired significant engineering talent. Expanded Santa Cruz offices.
2021 Goals: Steadfast focus on significant accounts, scaling and transforming the world with eco-friendly packaging. Hiring!
2021 Results: Raised largest (to date) seed round ($2.750m) and $1.7m NSF grants, developed several “proof-of-concept” programs with Fortune 100 companies, setup large scale production/R&D facility at Ingalls, scaled pellet production for extrusion manufacturing partner trials.
2022 Goals: Raise Series A funding, commercially launch 1st Fortune 100 customer, launch 1st manufacturing partner, accelerate our thought-leadership brand and market momentum, scale operations.
3. GetVirtual
Focus: Giving local businesses affected by COVID-19 the tools to adapt to the virtual landscape while teaching students entrepreneurship.
2020 Milestones: Supported 50+ businesses, connected 100+ students from UCSC, CSUMB and Santa Clara University to the program, built out our instructor lead and self paced GetVirtual curriculum.
2021 Goals: Become the leading collegiate online Social Entrepreneurship Program helping small businesses; expand to 10 colleges; usher 1,000 students through the program giving them practical real-world work experience while giving back to small businesses; help 200 small businesses get virtual; create an inspiring brand. Planning on launching a $500k Crowd-Funding round in Q1 2021 and hiring later in the year.
2021 Results: Last year was a banner year for GetVirtual.
The class was taught at UCSC every quarter since its founding in March 2020. It is now in the cross UC catalog so we are getting students from UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine. When asked why they are taking the class, they reply that there is not a service-learning community-oriented class at their schools like GetVirtual. We had our first student from Cabrillo that was able to take the class tuition-free using the Open University California program. It is also being taught at SCUMB and Southern Connecticut University. We have served over 115 clients (around 70% in Santa Cruz) and launched over 100 websites.
2022 Goals: GetVirtual’s plan for 2022 is to launch a new all-inclusive website in partnership with Wix that gives students access to the curriculum we have developed as well as a project management platform. We are currently working through rebranding and marketing with Rick Vargas who has over thirty years of design and advertising experience and former creative director for Apple from 2000-2018. Through an award given by UCSC's Online Education, we have designed a comprehensive online format for the class that includes videos. The structure aligns well with the Coursera format and we will be submitting it this Spring for their consideration. In partnership with the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development, GetVirtual will be featured as the capstone class for the new UCSC Crown College Entrepreneurship Certificate that we expect to launch this Spring.
4. HitchFire
Focus: From the founders of Tepui, the leader in roof top tents, comes HitchFire! Inspired by adventure, road trips, and the love of the outdoors, HitchFire leads a new category in hitch-based accessories. The rugged, hitch-mounted grills and accessories are purpose-built, made with the highest quality materials, and designed to withstand the roughest weather and toughest conditions for a world full of undiscovered trails and expeditions.
2020 Milestones: Launching a new brand and a new product virtually during a pandemic.
2021 Goals: To be recognized as the leader in a new category of lifestyle based hitch accessories. Yes we are hiring.
2021 Results: Achieved widespread retail distribution through nationally recognized retailers such as REI, Backcountry, Camping World and many specialty outdoor stores. Launched an array of new products & accessories to anchor our “Life at the Hitch” mantra. Won best new product at ICAST and best new gear in Outside Magazine Winter Buyer's Guide.
2022 Goals: To expand our product line into broader hitch-based appliances including a HitchKitchenTMand utility platform for use beyond cooking and to expand our distribution footprint into select international markets.
5. In Stock
Focus: Bringing local back into shopping while supporting local businesses and community.
2020 Milestones: Graduated from Ycombinator and raised our preseed round. We launched our service in Santa Cruz and expanded to the Peninsula.
2021 Goals: Develop new concierge service and raise a seed round from institutional investors. Currently hiring and looking for Head of Operations and Growth.
2021 Results: shuttered. Read all about it and lessons learned at Why In Stock Didn’t Work.
6. LeverEd
Focus: Unlocking growth for students in a digital format
2020 Milestones: 300% revenue growth, transitioned schools in the first week of distance learning and were able to help avoid learning loss that has dominated the news; launched a Republic Crowdfunding campaign that was 234% funded; received 2 certifications from Digital Promise and recognition as one of the most innovative early stage ed-tech companies in the world by ASU/GSV; launched a pilot in Kansas City, MO with LEANLAB Education (our first steps outside CA)l launched a Homeschool version of our program; and closed a Pre-seed SAFE round in December, led by CCA members.
2021 Goals: We are expanding our product to a full elementary math program and will pilot a Spanish language version in the fall.We have an active equity seed round that will likely close in February and are hiring.
2021 Results: 2021 was a big year for Levered. We raised $1.5M from local and national impact-focused investors. We also expanded from serving only California, to four other states (AZ, ID, NM, WA). We expanded from a team of 2 to 9 employees, hiring primarily educators who are working on curriculum development. We have been piloting K-2 this year with great feedback and saw impact data shared by some of our school partners that implementing Levered was able to help students avoid the learning loss in math we've heard so much about in the news.
2022 Goals: Our goal in 2022 is to expand our footprint to 10 states with a full elementary solution. We are raising additional funds in an equity round to develop the sales and marketing team.
7. Lookback
Focus: A platform that bridges the gap between end users and product teams to deliver optimum user experience
2020 Milestones: We had significant growth after a lot of companies went to remote customer research in March due to the pandemic. We made sure to use this opportunity to help and empower companies to make the change as easy as possible, and we also released a free video platform: www.goteam.video so that the extended product team could easier make the transfer to remote work. We have used Goteam internally for the last 2 years for all internal and external meetings.
2021 Goals: We are extending our platform with several features and capabilities over the next 6 months so that larger product teams can share customer experience throughout the organization for more efficient product development. We are always looking for coders, especially women and diverse coders. We have a diverse team but would like to get more women on our tech side of the company..
2021 Results: 2021 was a year of innovation and expansion for Lookback! We made huge improvements to our technology platform including the release of new functionality such as Interviews, Public Share Links and Mobile Tasks. With our New Player as a foundational pillar, we make it easy for product teams to gather customer feedback and insights and then share those throughout the organization. We also continued to invest and sponsor the thriving community of Learners and their very successful annual conference for researchers with more than 3000 attending (https://uxrconference.com/). Through active engagement with our user community, we identified a need for offerings geared towards freelancers and students and, as a result, launched new programs and offerings to support their endeavors. In addition, we made significant improvements in security, specifically related to privacy and GDPR. Finally, Lookback did a full refresh of our brand which you can review at: www.lookback.com. In addition to the technology advancements we’ve made, we have been able to attract and hire top talent from across the globe and held company-wide retreats in both Montreal, Canada and Stockholm, Sweden. We currently have more than 1,800 customers, with brand names like Google, Netflix, Klarna, Nike, Spotify, Kickstarter, Kaiser Permanente, Lyft, Squarespace, Etsy and Atlassian.
2022 Goals: We will focus on education and further increase awareness about how we can help companies, organizations, and product teams learn from their users. Lookback has never focused on marketing, so our growth has been word-of-mouth, but with a much-improved platform, we are ready for more organizations to discover how to gather insight from users in an effective and seamless way. After a period of shipping new product updates, reliability improvements, and rebranding, we will focus on awareness and growth. We also want to continue to hire the best talent globally, and in our experience diversity is the best way.
8. Parallel Flight
Focus: Industry leading heavy lift drones with hybrid powertrains
2020 Milestones: The design of our beta level aircraft in 2020 was our biggest achievement
2021 Goals: Demonstrate beta and bring it to customers, completing Regulation A funding round. There are several open hiring positions.
2021 Results: Beta demonstrated, customer deals being signed, raised 6.5M, hired several people
2022 Goals: Get hundreds of hours of flight test data, begin FAA certification process, raise 10M for testing and certification work, continue to grow PFT, demonstrate large scale prescribed burns with USDA
9. Smartbins aka Purcell
Focus: Changing grocery shopping with package-at-purchase solutions
2020 Milestones: Piloting with world’s largest CPG's and retail chains while keeping a local presence in Santa Cruz!
2021 Goals: Pilot online fulfillment dispenser, complete design for manufacturing on S1 Dispenser, and bringing an Add-on System to European Market. Also looking to hire an engineer (software, electrical, or mechanical)!
2021 Results: Oversubscribed Seed Funding Round. Texas implementation proved the online fulfillment model. 20% Purcell Dispenser sales were the back end for online fulfillment. 4 successful implementations with the world's largest food companies and retailers. Entered into a strategic partnership with a European hardware manufacturer giving Purcell global reach. Second Utility Patent issued.
2022 Goals: Series A Funding Round. Complete design for large-scale manufacturing on the S1 Dispenser. Keep up with orders and stay ahead of the supply chain/chip shortages!
BioTech
10. Dovetail Genomics
Focus: Creating a more comprehensive view of the genome.
2020 Milestones: Proud to serve customers in a safe and effective manner while also seeing the extension of Dovetail’s proximity ligation technology into the field of epigenetics, an area of research that seeks to understand genome modifications, distinct from genetic changes, that drive changes to gene expression. The launch of two ground breaking products, Dovetail™ Micro-C and Dovetail™ HiChIP, available both as a kit and service, also opened new avenues for understanding how genome architecture influences and drives gene regulation.
2021 Goals: Driven to build on a foundation of proximity ligation technology to help answer bigger genomic questions in the lab. In 2021, Dovetail continues to have a vibrant research and development program that is focused on solving critical needs in the world of genome research.
2021 Results: See Fierce Biotech, Nature, and Technology Networks.
2022 Goals: NA
11. Unnatural Products
Focus: AI-enhanced technology creating new drugs by engineering passively permeable, macrocyclic peptides that access traditionally undruggable targets.
2020 Milestones: A partnership with a top tier pharma, building out & moving into our new space on Delaware Ave, and some compelling early in vivo data on our oncology programs.
2021 Goals: Continue to grow and develop our platform, pipeline, and team. Currently raising our Series A and hiring now and in the future, looking for Chemists, Biologists, and Data Scientists..
2021 Results: We completed all of our 2021 goals including a partnership with BridgeBio, doubling our headcount with brilliant and experienced talent, developed new capabilities for our drug discovery platform, and raised new capital from great new partners like Wing VC and Merck MSD GHI.
2022 Goals: Continue to expand the number of programs and push our current pipeline programs further towards the clinic, use our new platform technologies to expand our customer base and source some new partners to work with, and keep adding to our world class team of drug discovery and development experts in Santa Cruz.
12. BONUS STARTUP: Esaiyo
Focus: We really like this company. It will formally launch in Q1 2021. They believe that every story has an object, and every object has a story.
2020 Milestones: Completed initial funding, IP filing, pilot customers, built the framework and micro services to scale our technical infrastructure.
2021 Goals: 2021 launch our MVP and scale two major clients. Series A seeking $2.6m in tranches. $500k, $2.1M.
2021 Results: We have been contracted by the Government of Barbados and introduced by Prime Minister Mia Motley through a consortium to help guide the way into a new Global Heritage Economy for Barbados. In our role, we are exploring the uses of our proprietary software to protect Barbados’ ownership pertaining to their heritage data and records while amplifying this information by surfacing and connecting the stories of Barbados’ people, culture, places, significant objects, and records.
We put more focus on the NFT marketplaces as early adopters of our platform now that NFT's are better known. The problem is when you mint an NFT on one chain/marketplace, you need to destroy/burn it to place it on another chain/marketplace. You lose all the original history and past data. We have a solution for that market that we can implement quickly showing its entire providence across chains and marketplaces.
2022 Goals: Continue to raise capital to expedite development. Continue to develop our platform and services. Build strong relationships with current and potential partners.
See our 2020 Santa Cruz Startups to Watch