2022 was a year of large wins and big announcements. But for some, it was also a year of moving on from companies and positions.
As the startup community knows well, there are opportunities in both wins and failures.
With that in mind, here are Buffalo Inno’s top 10 storylines of 2022:
10. Top Seedz to relocate HQ downtown, ramp up production
Fresh off of winning 43North’s 2021 grand prize of $1 million, Top Seedz announced in 2022 that it inked a long-term lease for 35,000 square feet at 101 Oak St. in downtown Buffalo. The move, expected to take place by spring 2023, will expand production capacity. That’s good news for a business that’s about doubled its sales each year since it was founded in 2017.
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9. Kangarootime raises funds, moves its HQ
Office Envy-Kangarootime
Kangarootime’s been busy in 2022. The startup closed on a $26 million Series B round and moved its headquarters from the 43North incubator in Seneca One Tower to Ellicott Development’s 301 Ohio St. development on the Buffalo River. That space will come in handy as the business grows its team. Kangarootime hopped from its 60th employee in June 2022 to 84 by October 2022, not including third-party contractors.
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8. Odoo continues to expand its local footprint
Odoo has rapidly grown its presence in Buffalo since opening an office here in 2020. The business software corporation, headquartered in Belgium, started with one worker in the Queen City in 2020 and had around 150 here as of late December. The company also started last year a software engineering internship and plans to continue that this year with at least 50 interns, aiming to hire about half of them to full-time roles. Odoo expects to hire an additional 100 workers in 2023 across various positions.
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7. Centivo moves headquarters to downtown Buffalo
Centivo has positioned itself to accelerate its national rollout with a $30 million funding raise in 2022 and moving its headquarters to downtown Buffalo. The business, which builds self-funded health care plans for employers, had previously split local operations between downtown and Cheektowaga but consolidated into 9,000 square feet in the University at Buffalo’s Gateway Building. The move set the company, which locally employed 63 as of April 2022, up to attract high-aptitude local talent.
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6. One of Buffalo's original startup believers changed Buffalo, and then he moved on
Clark Dever, one of Buffalo’s original startup believers, decided earlier this year to move to Austin, Texas. It was mostly a decision borne of personal necessity but part of the reason he felt like he could move on is because his chapter of nurturing the local startup community is done. He plans on bridging the gap between Buffalo and Austin and will champion the Queen City from afar.
“To go from the small number of people who were engaged 10 years ago to the thousands that are engaged now, to the growth and the success that the community’s had. It’s time to pass the torch,” he said.
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5. Viridi Parente is poised for growth
Fresh off a nearly $95 million funding raise, Viridi Parente ramped up growth in 2022 and doesn’t plan to slow down. This past year, the business completed a $10 million renovation project that increased its occupied square footage by about 50,000 square feet. That brings the company’s total square footage to roughly 180,000 of the available 850,000. CEO and founder Jon Williams’ goal is to occupy the entire 42-acre campus, and he’s working on plans for the next expansion, which will include implementation automation technology to ramp up production.
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4. Local startup Crowfly shutters
After five years, local startup Crowfly shut down in 2022. The business, started by John Bair, Tony Barnes and Nita Bhatia, created a marketplace for structured settlements, seeking to connect people who want to sell their settlements with a supply of potential buyers. The “market dynamics and the lack of institutional interest in helping the people in this small industry proved too difficult to overcome given our mission of people over profits,” according to Bair. Bhatia is now COO at AireXpert, and Barnes and Bair are continuing in pre-existing leadership roles at other organizations, according to LinkedIn.
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3. End of an era: Dan Magnuszewski leaves ACV Auctions
Dan Magnuszewski, who co-founded ACV Auctions (NASDAQ: ACVA) with Joseph Neiman and Jack Greco, left the company in June 2022. He moved out of his CTO role at ACV in 2021 to become a senior adviser, though said at the time he was still closely involved with the company. But in true founder fashion, he didn’t wait long to get involved in something new. That same month, the Buffalo-based entrepreneur and technologist announced he had joined Rochester-based Foundry Digital as its chief technology officer, with plans to build a major hub for the company in Buffalo, partnering with local colleges and hiring for both technology and business roles.
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2. Bitwise Industries comes to Buffalo
Bitwise announced it was coming to Buffalo in 2022, and the Fresno, California-based company that trains tech workers in underserved communities, develops software and invests in tech-friendly real estate picked 368 Sycamore St. on Buffalo’s East Side to set up shop. The project is backed by major local players in business and philanthropy who banded together to convince Bitwise’s operation to come here and, ultimately, invested in it. Those groups see it as more than just another tech company moving to town: Bitwise is the linchpin in an effort to tie the region’s emergent tech scene with the plight of its many underprivileged communities.
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1. Startups' momentum in raising capital continues
Despite a tough economic climate, 19 startups based in Buffalo or with significant local operations raised about $140 million during the first six months of 2022. And all of those startups confirmed growth-oriented equity rounds, meaning the overall number of ambitious projects continues to increase. That’s on the heels of a banner year in 2021 with a total of 36 local companies raising funds.
Stay tuned for a full-year wrap on funding raised in 2022.
