Looking for cyber security? Ursine testing software? Self-driving boats? This year's 50 on Fire winners in the software category have you covered.
There's no shortage of Boston-based software companies. So in our hunt for winners this time around, the software category was easily the most competitive. Plus the demand for software developers and web developers rises exponentially each year, according to the Massachusetts Office of Labor and Work Development.
It wasn't an easy choice, but here are the 2019 50 on Fire winners in Software (B2B, AI, ML, VR/AR):
Catalant Technologies: The strategy execution platform has been smoldering for a while now. Founded as “HourlyNerd” in 2013, it attracted interest early on from “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban, who invested $450,000 in the company’s seed round that year. Six years on, the company now has more than $75 million in funding, most recently from a $41 million Series D round in 2017. In the last year alone, Catalant has opened offices in Rochester, N.Y.; California; and London. Earlier this year, BostInno sister publication the Boston Business Journal nominated Catalant as the second-fastest-growing company in Massachusetts.
Corvus Insurance: This AI-driven insurance provides cyber insurance for companies. In November 2018, Corvus raised $10 million from .406 Ventures and Hudson Structured, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures. Its focus lately has been expansion into the South. In April, it opened its first Atlanta office; that same month, it said it would open an office in Dallas. The company says that this year, it has launched three new product offerings, more than quadrupled its monthly sales and doubled its headcount.
Payfactors: The Braintree-based compensation software service also happens to be a winner of BostInno’s 2019 Coolest Companies awards for its spirit at BostonFest. The company says it has a 95 percent retention rate among its customers; just in its Peer product, it has 2 million employees, exchanging data on over 4,000 jobs from 1,000 companies from a grand total of 157 countries. Plus, this year, it has expanded its headcount by 28 percent and its office by 10,000 sq. ft.
Sea Machines: Two words: autonomous boats. The idea first came as an afterthought to CEO and founder Michael Johnson while he was working on an oil spill response team in the Arctic. Now, it’s a fully fledged startup: Sea Machines, a maker of software for self-driving boats operating out of an East Boston shipyard. The company closed a $10 million Series A round led by Accomplice in December 2018. This year, it has successfully deployed an autonomous oil spill response vessel, partnered with Canadian workboat manufacturer Hike Metal and launched a global dealer program to expand sales internationally. In March, Sea Machines announced the opening of a new Boston-based technology office.
SmartBear: The ursine software testing platform has been shopping recently. In the last two years, the 10-year-old startup has made four acquisitions, most recently Bitbar, a 10-year-old DevOps company based in Helsinki, Finland. Earlier this year, SmartBear acquired Cucumber Ltd., a leader in the Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) community and provider of open source test automation framework “Cucumber.” (SmartBear itself was acquired by Francisco Partners in 2017.) This year, SmartBear has introduced API standardization, implemented AI into its products and held its annual conference, SmartBear Connect.
Wise Systems: An alumnus of prestigious incubators Techstars, MassChallenge and MIT Global Founders’ Skills Accelerator, Wise Systems develops enterprise software to help companies optimize delivery routes. Just last December, it raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI-focused venture fund. In 2019, the company says, it has grown its team by 80 percent and significantly expanded its client base: It counts Anheuser-Busch among its customers, along with companies in the bespoke passenger transport, natural gas and automotive industries.
