Two Charlotte startups have been highlighted as ones "to watch" by the North Carolina Technology Association.
The association hosts an annual awards dinner every year. Several local entrepreneurs, tech companies and ecosystem leaders were honored at the Nov. 4 event, including Cathy Bessant, vice chair of global strategy for Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC). Bessant received the Beacon Award for outstanding achievement. Charlotte tech firm Passport took home a Technology Corporate Award in the category of industry driven/fintech.
Included in the awards is a sweeping list of 10 startups to watch — from a Durham company working to make the legal system more accessible to a Charlotte firm working to change the way people engage with philanthropy. Here are details on each company:
Amicus.io
A Charlotte-based fintech company working to change how individuals, corporations, foundations and governments engage in philanthropy. The firm was cofounded by Cor Hoekstra, Walt Ruloff and Paul Welsh in 2017 and is trying to digitize the nonprofit space, modernizing donor-advised funds for charitable giving to “empower motivated donors of any size.”
Anduin
A Charlotte startup working to fix what its website calls the “work-to-cash Cycle.” The goal is to help accounting firms save time, speed up cashflow and improve the client experience. The firm, which gets its name from the river in JRR Tolkien’s "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, is led by Justin Adams.
Courtroom5
A Durham startup founded by professors Sonja Ebron and Debra Slone to help anyone represent themselves in court — no legal background required. It provides a legal toolbox that not only helps users track their progress, but also connects them with relevant legal information and training to help them advance their court cases.
EDJX
The Raleigh-based edge-computing startup, led by John Cowan, helps users create smarter, faster apps, websites and data pipelines. The firm spun out of Raleigh’s 6fusion in 2018 and competes against cloud giants such as Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).
Floodlight Software
The Cary company provides inspection and testing management software. Led by Nasrin Azari, company president, and Justin Boeckler, chief technical officer, the firm has created a scalable, cloud-based platform to streamline inspection and testing management operations for organizations serving multiple industries, from oil and gas to engineering to water.
Gemelli BioTech
The Raleigh firm, founded and led by Matt Mitcho, aims to support new therapies and diagnostic tools for the human microbiome by bringing biotechnology innovations to market. Products highlighted on its website include a blood test that measures antibodies levels associated in patients with post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome and a breath test that measures hydrogen, methane and hydrogen sulfide in patients after lactulose or glucose consumption.
Hybrid Athlete Foundation
The Wilmington company, founded by Albert Steed, Philip Tabor, Matthew Murray and Paul Murray, offers technology for gyms. It has a mobile app that allows members and employees to request access and unlock the gym’s door from their phones.
Levitate
The Raleigh startup was founded by Jesse Lipson, whose last startup, ShareFile, was acquired by Citrix (NASDAQ: CTSX), bringing the technology giant to Raleigh. Levitate (whose name was inspired by Lipson’s love of magic tricks), has developed what it calls a “keep-in-touch marketing platform,” intended to make it easy to keep up communication with clients.
Seguno Software
The Durham startup was cofounded by Chris Geiss. Geiss was previously at email marketing firm Bronto. When Netsuite bought out Bronto, he took the equity he secured in the deal and started Seguno alongside former colleague Marc Baumbach. The company has developed a marketing automation platform for Shopify merchants.
TriggerMesh
The Apex startup is a multi-cloud management platform that provides cloud native integration for Kubernetes. It’s complex-sounding technology that helps firms easily respond to customer and system events. It was cofounded by Sebastien Goasguen and Mark Hinkle.
For a full list of winners, click here.
