New Mexico Inno's 2024 Startups to Watch list highlights 10 startups we expect to capture headlines in the year ahead. The New Mexico Inno editorial team picked out the 10 companies through a nomination process and our own research and reporting.
You can read all about these 10 Startups to Watch in the Feb. 2 print edition of Albuquerque Business First. The startups will also be featured individually on the New Mexico Inno site in the coming days.
Freight logistics, at times, can be a bit of an outdated industry. Often, it involves brokerage firms manually managing shipments and utilizing overly complicated systems.
That's why Marco Vallejo Jr., a professional with years of experience in the logistics sector, teamed up with Ian Love and JaQuan Bryant to co-found AizenFlow in May 2023.
El Paso-based AizenFlow is working on a platform to help brokerages digitize and simplify freight logistics. The platform comes with automation processes to help brokers save time and incorporates artificial intelligence to build in predictive analytics tools.
The idea for the platform came out of a Microsoft-sponsored hackathon in El Paso, where Vallejo Jr. combined his industry experience with Love's background in software development and Bryant's penchant for sales to form AizenFlow.
The startup finished its first minimum viable product in late 2023 and is in the process of onboarding several users for a closed beta version of its management platform.
Four full-time and five part-time employees work with AizenFlow, and the startup has raised $250,000, recently coming in first place and landing a $10,000 check at the November Dia de los Muertos Pitch Competition in El Paso this past year.
To help accelerate product development and prepare for a full launch of its platform, Vallejo Jr. said AizenFlow wants to raise $1 million. The startup also hopes to have at least 20 customers for the first full version of its logistics management platform by June.
2024 Startups to Watch
Startups to Watch 2024
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El Paso-based FundMiner, co-founded by Alejandro Stevenson-Druan, left, and Chelsea Lamego in 2022. The startup has built an AI-powered software platform to help nonprofits and other large fundraising organizations manage finances and improve financial efficiency.
Dav Anmed
Los Alamos-based Spiritus Technologies, co-founded by CEO Charles Cadieu, left, and CTO Matt Lee, Ph.D., came out of stealth in September 2023. The startup plans to build direct air capture sites using a type of sorbent technology it claims can drastically reduce the cost of removing carbon from the air.
Courtesy of Spiritus Technologies
Albuquerque-based Karoo Health, co-founded by CEO Ian Koons (pictured here) in 2021. The startup has a value-based cardiac health care system that combines on-site and virtual care teams in partnership with cardiology networks, health plans and health systems.
Photo courtesy of Ian Koons
Santa Fe-based Mercury Bio, co-founded by CEO Bruce McCormick (pictured here), emerged from stealth in August 2023. The startup has a biomolecular drug delivery platform that involves drug encapsulation in natural nanoparticles and cell-specific targeting.
Courtesy of Bruce McCormick
Albuquerque-based BuildMySOP, founded by CEO Kady Cravens (pictured here) in 2020. The startup, which recently went through an acquisition deal, helps cannabis companies build and manage standards of procedure through templates and on-hand compliance and process review.
Courtesy Kady Cravens
Los Lunas-based Cheshir Industries, founded by CEO Nicolas Garcia, Ph.D. (pictured here) in late 2022. The startup is developing a gradient index antenna technology that it claims can increase power efficiency and multi-functionality by as much as 10 times.
Courtesy of Nicolas Garcia
Albuquerque-based VastVision.io, co-founded by CEO Kyle Guin (pictured here) in early 2023. The startup has rolled out a software platform that large businesses can use to keep track of physical assets via ultra-high frequency radio frequency identification chips to track assets's location and movement.
Courtesy of Kyle Guin
El Paso-based AizenFlow, co-founded by CEO Marco Vallejo Jr., left, CTO Ian Love, center, and Chief Revenue Officer JaQuan Bryant, right, chief revenue officer, in early 2023. The startup aims to help freight brokerages better manage logistics using artificial intelligence and digital automation processes.
Courtesy of AizenFlow
Los Alamos-based Undesert, co-founded by CEO Nicholas Seet (pictured here) and CTO Hill Kemp in 2021. The startup has developed a technology for purifying different sorts of brackish and produced water using solar energy.
Samantha DAnna
Albuquerque-based Flow Aluminum, co-founded by CTO Chris Fetrow, left, and CEO Tom Chepucavage, right, in late 2022. The startup is commercializing an aluminum CO2 battery design for applications ranging from drone power to large-scale energy storage.
Jacob Maranda
