Nearly a year ago, Alabama Inno named its 2023 Startups to Watch.
It focused on the young companies in the state that have garnered capital, customers or ideas that indicated a new year filled with growth and big moves. Now that the 2024 Startups to Watch class has been named, we're catching up with the 2023 class. Here is a look at what some of the startups on last year's list have been up to.
Accelerate Wind
Most recently, Accelerate Wind was selected for a contract to address critical Department of the Air Force challenges.
It was picked AFWERX for a $110,000 STTR Phase I contract, focusing on distributed rooftop wind technology, according to a LinkedIn update. Beginning this year, Accelerate Wind will focus on enhancing renewable energy applications in defense infrastructure.
In 2023, Erika Boeing, founder and CEO of Accelerate Wind, was also part of a cohort of 11 innovators in the Overton Fellowship, a new Magic City-based founder development program. In July, Accelerate Wind named a chief operating officer and a fractional chief financial officer. The new COO, Sophie Schaffer, was one of the BBJ 2023 Inno Under 25 honorees. It was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to pilot its wind turbines as part of the Green Proving Ground program. In June, Boeing nabbed first place at the San Francisco-based Women in Cleantech and Sustainability Pitch Competition, which is focused on spotlighting female entrepreneurs from the cleantech and sustainability industry.
AI Metrics
AI Metrics' CEO stepped down in 2023. Bob Jacobus, co-founded the company in 2018, which was created to help radiologists deliver faster, more accurate evaluations of advanced cancer patients.
"Launch and repeat," Jacobus wrote in a social media post at the time. "The time has come for me to step down from leading AI Metrics after co-founding the company four years ago. We have made a significant impact on the lives of cancer patients, enabling their physicians to track disease progression using AI and well-designed tools. It has been an honor to serve those patients, their oncologists and the radiologists performing the evaluations."
Jacobus thanked his co-founders Paige Severino and Dr. Andrew Smith, adding that he is continuing on a quest to launch more companies.
Croux
In 2023, Croux claimed $50,000 in the Alabama Launchpad Cycle 2 2023 finale in August after it previously won $25,000 in the concept stage division for the first cycle of the competition in 2022. The Alabama Restaurant and Hospitality Association also recently designated the startup supplier of the year. It garnered a $1 million funding round in May, with the money coming from TitletownTech, an early-stage venture capital firm formed by a partnership between the Green Bay Packers and Microsoft, and a group of investors. Croux also moved into Innovation Depot last year.
Croux is currently broadening its horizons beyond Alabama.
MRIMath
MRIMath is a Birmingham-based startup aiming to solve this issue as well as speed up the process using artificial intelligence. Tumor contouring is an important step in medical treatments, as it allows physicians to understand if a tumor is growing and where exactly its located. Variability in contouring translates to variability in treatment. The BBJ sat down with its co-founder over the summer to hear more about how the startup is developing AI that will produce the contour for the tumor margin.
The company also attended the Nordic Life Sciences Days conference in 2023 as part of a delegation that traveled to Scandinavia to explore future possibilities for Alabama’s bioscience industry.
Nia Benefit
To spotlight some of the country's promising women-led startups, American Inno compiled its first national Female Founders to Watch list in 2023, a collection of startup leaders behind fast-growing young firms. Birmingham founder Alisha Jiwani, founder of Nia Benefit, was selected.
TruSpin Nanomaterial Innovation Inc.
TruSpin Nanomaterial Innovation, a developer of nanofiber production technology and supplier of nanofibers, inked a distribution agreement in 2023 with Japanese distributor Filgen Inc., one of Japan’s major distributors of scientific materials, supplies and research equipment.
According to the agreement, Filgen, based in Nagoya, Japan, would import various types of organic, inorganic and polymer nanofibers produced by TruSpin and market these materials to Japanese scientists developing technologies using nanomaterials. Filgen is a trading and manufacturing company operating in bioscience and nanoscience research fields. It develops scientific instruments and offers analysis services as a manufacturer, while it imports products and services from overseas as a trading company.
TruSpins's CEO Robert Agnew was also honored at the BBJ's 2023 CEO Awards.
Xplosion Technology
Greens by Xplosion Technology unveiled it nabbed a combined investment of $220,000 from Techstars and Innovate Alabama in 2023 and that it was finalizing a $500,000 pre-seed round.
That startup began as an app focusing on teens with diabetes from vulnerable populations to offer culturally focused meal predictions to help make maintenance and treatment easier for them and their families. Greens uses technology with real-time photos of foods to assist in carbohydrate calculation and food experiment. It also builds a "library" of commonly eaten foods and meals to inform future bolus strategy.
It is the business brainchild of founders Kehlin Swain, Isis Ashford and Jaylen James. The company also left Houston in early 2023 to call Birmingham their business' home after successfully completing Prosper’s 12-week HealthTech Accelerator, managed by gener8tor.
Zaden Technologies
In 2023, Zaden unveiled that it is sponsoring the NOW FC and NOW SOCCER ACADEMY LLC, named Cameron Chaparro to the role of chief technology officer, made many hiring posts on its LinkedIn and celebrated its CEO, Valentine Nwachukwu, being honored with the 2023 Young Alumni Rising Star Award by the UAB National Alumni Society.
Zorro-Flow
The startup raised its seed round in 2023, according to Crunchbase.
