Startups to Watch

New Mexico has a diverse selection of startups making exciting moves in industries like biotechnology, aerospace and hydrogen energy.

And there are a lot of resources available to help these burgeoning young companies throughout the Land of Enchantment grow, whether they come from the south desert near Las Cruces or are tucked under the Jemez Mountains in Los Alamos.

Last year, New Mexico Inno highlighted 10 such companies in its inaugural Startups to Watch List. Now, that List is back, packed with 10 more startups that we think are primed for a big 2023.

Startups to Watch honorees were selected by the Albuquerque Business First editorial team. New Mexico Inno Reporter Jacob Maranda led the search. When considering each honoree, he looked at how the startups performed in 2022, as well as what they have planned in 2023.

All of the startups are featured in a special print edition of Business First published on Feb. 3. In the coming days online, you'll also have a chance to read about each business and learn about the work they are doing to grow their startups in New Mexico and beyond.

Albuquerque city councilors, late last year, expressed interest in deploying noise cameras in certain parts of the city, in an effort to monitor speeding, robbery and other crimes. Thankfully, Perspective Components Inc. has a product that can do just that.

That product is called NoiseVu. It's an artificial intelligence-backed smart microphone that can detect abnormal noises around an area, like gunshots, speeding vehicles or verbal aggression.

Erik Strobert, Perspective Components Inc.'s CEO who incorporated the company in early 2019, developed NoiseVu with the help of the City of Albuquerque. The City spent about $90,000 on the technology, money that went toward proof of concept testing for the product, according to previous Albuquerque Business First reporting.

Although Strobert told Business First that Perspective Components isn't "in a dire need for money," he added that money raised through a seed round that the startup wants to close later this year would help scale Perspective Components' operations.

"That's everything from sales to engineering to marketing," Strobert said.

But Strobert said that he wants to have NoiseVu systems operational in at least two major cities outside of Albuquerque before the company would open its seed round. He'd look for between $750,000 to $1.5 million in funding through that round, he said.

Right now, Perspective Components has its NoiseVu microphones installed at three locations in Albuquerque — one at Pino Yards, one at a Downtown parking garage and one at a city park. The startup is also working with Santa Fe-based technology integration firm Apex Technical Solutions and regional architecture firm Dekker Perich Sabatini to showcase the product.

In terms of expansion, Strobert said that he's focused on cities in states that border New Mexico. Through regional growth and local showcases, Strobert sees a year of expansion ahead for Perspective Components.

"2020, 2021 and 2022 were all spent in the planning and development and R&D phases," Strobert said. "While we still do all that stuff, in 2023 we get to basically — from the first of the year — hit the ground running with educating new customers, installing new systems and growing the business itself rather than just maturing the technology."