Top Santa Cruz Startups to Watch in 2023
Cosmic Champions
We've all had our minds blown by the cosmic champions from Santa Cruz that have managed to hitch a rocket ride to the stratosphere: the likes of Joby Aviation, Ambient Photonics, Jane Technologies, Paystand, OneWheel, Cruz Foam, FullPower, Climatize, and an impressive ton of others. It's like they've formed their own celestial league of superhuman innovators. But wait, there's more!
What about the bright, fresh-off-the-lab startups that have just emerged in 2023? They're popping up like whack-a-moles, each with a shot at becoming the next Santa Cruz sensation. Hold on to your hats because we might just be looking at the next shooting stars of innovation.
A real-life showdown of epic proportions is set for September 13, 2023. Six of these newborn startups will step onto the battleground at the Santa Cruz Works Accelerates Pitch Competition. This ain't your grandma's knitting competition, guys. It's the Santa Cruz Olympics of startups where they're vying for a trifecta of wins: fame, fortune, and all-out, unadulterated glory.
For now, feast your eyes on these budding stars!
CarbonBridge - Striving to be the leading provider of low cost renewable liquid fuels with out dependency on carbon credits, resulting in an impact of at least 1 gigaton of CO2e by 2050.
ClosedLoop - backed by BOOST VC and Soma Capital, is developing a comprehensive OS for autonomous systems across multiple platforms. The system boasts reliability, fault tolerance, performance, real-time responsiveness, and scalability, suitable for everything from satellites and rovers to ISAM. In response to the software issues causing failures in 70% of satellites during their first year, Closedloop's single, streamlined OS platform offers a robust and scalable alternative to standard Linux distributions, reducing complexity and system vulnerability while simplifying development and maintenance.
Edily is developing a mobile app for educators and high-school/college students to share education-focused videos that are engaging and fun. Similar to TikTok and Youtube, every video on the platform is created by its users and supports the startup’s mission “To empower creators, educators, and learners to take ownership over the education experience”
Even Recharge - a solar panel portable EV-recharging station that can be deployed in 2-3 days, not 4-6 months of licenses, connecting to the grid, and other bureaucratic issues. And this station generates profit!
Guardian Angel - this startup is focused on solving the heartbreaking problem of child deaths due to being left unattended in hot cars. This device can be easily installed in any car seat, utilizing advanced sensors to detect the presence of a child. Real-time alerts are then sent to the parent's smartphone, ensuring that no child (or pet) is left behind in a hot car.
Here For You - aims to address the challenges individuals and families face in receiving meaningful support during difficult times. The platform provides a centralized space for communication, expression of needs, and sharing of resources, while guiding the community to offer support in ways that truly meet the recipient's needs.
Ingrediently is on a mission to get people cooking. We are a Santa Cruz based startup, founded by born-and-raised locals, that is entering the shoppable recipes market. Finding a recipe, searching an online grocery store for each ingredient, adding them one-by-one to the grocery cart, and then repeating the process for the next recipe is tedious.
Little Feet Packaging - each year, we use enough plastic bubble wrap to go around the Earth 250 times. Their first product is biodegradable bubble wrap called “Pubble Paper”.
Miss Lippe’s Dumpling Party - following her impressive victory at the 2022 Startup Challenge Monterey Bay, Emily Lippe propelled her startup Miss Lippe’s Dumpling Party into a growth trajectory soaring by 300%. Her venture, Miss Lippe's, is a dumpling business dedicated to celebrating community and mouth-watering cuisine.
MoneyFlow is financial empowerment and happiness for mid to lower-income individuals and families. Reducing financial stress and improving financial wellbeing through our simple, game-like, 3-Step money management system and social support community.
RedRider - RedRider is on a mission to revolutionize the construction industry with sustainable and durable housing solutions. Our innovative construction system and method seeks to solve the pressing issue of the housing crisis by building modular designed homes quickly, while also minimizing the construction industry's negative impact on the environment.
SeeChangeNow is the publisher of Earth Island, an immersive video game that will inspire people around the world to take Action to improve the future of our only home, Earth.
Swell Cycle - By leveraging cutting-edge technology, including 3D printing and innovative material research, we transform plastic water bottles and old hospital trays into functional and visually stunning surfboards.
Yektasonics introduces highly cost-effective and superior performance ultrasound driving systems: Power Modules and Phased Arrays. The technology is a core building block of a wide range of medical and non-medical applications. We have launched our Power Modules successfully.