Seven startups will leave the Advanced Technology Development Center nest this May after graduating from the state technology incubator's top-tier program.
All seven startups will be honored with a special ceremony on May 10 at the 2018 ATDC Startup Showcase at the Renaissance Atlanta Midtown Hotel.
The ATDC Class of 2018 includes:
- Clean Hands-Safe Hands: Partners with hospitals to develop comprehensive hand hygiene solutions that improve patient care and save lives. The company reduces hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) by inspiring a personal-best approach to hand hygiene.
- Cognosos: Develops wireless infrastructure for the Internet of Things (IoT)
- Greenlight: Creator of the 'smart' debit card for kids, controlled by parents from a mobile app.
- Groundfloor: A crowdfunding platform for short-term, high-yield real estate loans.
- Gozio: Utilizes a digital, interactive wayfinding platform, combining technology, customizable content management and real-time analytics on all devices.
- Predikto: Using predictive analytics, Predikto predicts failures in Industrial IoT equipment.
- Rented.com: The world's largest marketplace connecting vacation, second home and investment property owners with short-term professional rental managers.
Brian Dally, CEO and co-founder of Groundfloor, said the graduation from ATDC was a bittersweet celebration. Since joining the ATDC Signature program, Groundfloor has grown from six to 30 employees. The company is in the process of raising another round of capital available to public investors residing in the state and expects to double its employee base in the next few years.
"We were proud to get into the program three years ago, we were excited about that and we’ve grown a lot since we arrived," he said.
Dally said he was grateful for the ATDC staff for creating a collaborative environment among startups in the city.
"What I appreciated about ATDC the most were the types of startups that were around me, the caliber of the startups around me and the opportunity to interact with those founders regularly, just social interaction," he said. "I thought those were one of the best parts of ATDC, being in that community."
CEO and founder of Rented.com Andrew McConnell said the next step for his company after ATDC was growing awareness of their brand to homeowners and expanding. He echoed Dally's sentiments about surrounding himself and employees with other driven, successful people in the ATDC program.
"The biggest benefit was probably the peer groups that you’re able to surround yourself with," he said.
ATDC at Georgia Tech is a startup tech and business incubator helping entrepreneurs launch successful companies.
Companies in the ATDC Signature portfolio are evaluated for long-term growth and success. To graduate the program, startups must raise at least $1 million of revenue a year, identify a scalable business model and pinpoint a way to finance the company's growth.
More than 180 technology firms have graduated from ATDC since launching the organization 38 years ago.
