Recap of Startup Rumble New Tech
Our final Santa Cruz Works New Tech event of 2021 is down on the books! Did you miss it? If so, don’t worry, we have you covered.
CyberNINES opened up this New Tech event which featured a head-to-head showdown of 6 Santa Cruz Accelerates startups: Better Boxes, Robotics Cats Limited, Immergo Labs, Purcell, The Apptopus (Now Fonda), and Climatize.
CyberNINES
CyberNINES is an established company in cyber security and the organization you will want to partner with if you plan on working with the US government.
First Place
The Apptopus empowers mom and pop restaurants by helping them navigate the complexities of e-commerce and 3rd party delivery services i.e. Grubhub, Doordash, Uber Eats. The Apptopus has made approximately $500k in revenue and is used in 9 cities by over 70 restaurants. They plan on reaching more restaurants and are looking for investors to bring their software to more restaurants nationally.
Second Place
Immergo Labs: Michael Powell, Biomechanics Lead for Immergo, shared their startups solution: a virtual clinic for physical therapists. Telehealth options are slim and a poor experience at best, especially for physical therapists. The pandemic has made it clear that a hybrid model is needed. PT’s can conduct their initial meeting in person, but many sessions can be done virtually without the need to come into an office. Immergo combines VR headset with an Algorithm to provide data and metrics to physical therapists which can potentially allow them to help their clients anywhere in the world. They are in process of patenting technology with UCSC and looking for funding to support the development of a prototype.
Third Place
Climatize is building a climate FinTech mobile app that allows you to easily invest in renewable energy projects with your spare change. They are partnering with British multinational universal bank, Barclays and won 3 global awards. Climatize is looking for pre-seed investors who want to join the climate fight.
Runners Up
Robotics Cats: Andre Cheung, CEO and Founder of Robotics CATs (Computer vision, AI, IOT), presented the company’s camera-based wildfire SaaS, LookOut. which can detect smoke using optical detection algorithms. Several government agencies in 10 countries across the globe currently use their technology to fight fires. Robotics Cats is offering Santa Cruz Works members 6-months of LookOut wildfire detection standard service for free (1-Dec-2021 to 31-May-2022).
Better Boxes: Lara Bezich, founder of Better Boxes, presented her product: patented, sturdy, eco-friendly, and aesthetically pleasing organizing boxes which can be used for multiple purposes and packed flat. It can of course be used for storing your office to supplies but it can also turn into night stand, bed, closet organizer, you name it! In the US alone, $19.5 billion per year is spent on organizing products and $44B globally but there is no dominant player in the organizing game, nor any product on the market that checks all the boxes. Lara has been featured on American entrepreneur, Jason Calcanis’ pitch contest/show (1:03:35-1:11:14) where he called it the “Ikea killer”. Better Boxes is currently looking for investors.
Purcell helps retailers display their bulk products, nutrition labels, and set up promotions digitally. Consumers can see the amount of product dispensed digitally instead of having to manually weigh it. Purcell’s product integrates with an enterprise dash that allows retailers to see real time data and take action. For example, if a product is going to expire soon, the retailer will be notified and can optimize when to put items on sale based on expiration date and set up campaigns at the touch of a button. Purcell recently successfully completed pilots with Nestle, agb, and 7th generation.