Good luck stereotyping the 10 companies on KC Inno’s inaugural Startups to Watch list.
CryptoSlam tracks nonfungible token (NFT) data for investors. TealHouse Labs Inc. looks to NFT technology to provide authentication for its vegan footwear and fashion products. The Market Base relies on artificial intelligence to tailor marketing campaigns for small businesses, and Telememory Holding Corp.’s MoodSpark uses AI to detect when seniors are stressed or depressed.
MatchRite Care LLC and Artio Medical Inc. both address problems that long have plagued the health care profession. One does it by making medical records more available, while the other addresses vascular challenges.
But the group does share some important similarities.
These 10 startups have identified real market needs. They’ve honed their approaches through incubators, pitch contests and formal presentations. They’ve made believers of early investors. They’ve taken solid steps to turn ideas into products that either are out in front of potential customers or at least in the advanced testing stage.
Finally, these startups all appear positioned to make huge advances in 2022 — whether through final clinical trials or product launches, by working toward big funding rounds or to add employees.
Needless to say, they are worth keeping an eye on.
Artio Medical
Artio Medical Inc. raised more than $18 million last year and grew from 11 to 47 employees. The Prairie Village medical device company also opened a research-and-development facility in Massachusetts.
Artio was founded and is led by Dr. Nick Franano, a serial entrepreneur and former interventional radiologist who wanted to solve problems he witnessed as a doctor. The company’s portfolio spans peripheral vascular, neurovascular and vascular products, including the Amplifi Vein Dilation System, which has shown promise in preparing a patient’s vein for vascular access surgery.
Artio is building out a 50,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing facility in Olathe. It eventually could top 150,000 square feet and 200 employees.
In 2022, Artio aims to raise an additional $50 million and complete its second-in-human clinical trial with Amplifi. It also seeks regulatory clearance to sell its Solus Gold Embolization Device in the U.S. and is building a commercial sales team to market it.
“2022 will be a transformative year for Artio,” Franano said. “With our first commercial sales, Artio will emerge from a long and very productive startup R&D phase and transition into a growth-stage company, with additional innovative product launches and rising revenues going forward.”
Azella Advisor
With an industry trend of financial advisers breaking away from big firms to venture on their own and the pandemic forcing businesses to maintain connections with clients virtually, Azella Advisor CEO and founder David Roberson saw a demand and ran with it.
Grain Valley-based Azella Advisor is an automated platform aimed at producing high-quality leads and simplifying marketing for hybrid, independent and breakaway financial advisers. It can help with aspects such as Google ads, email marketing and website design.
Founded in 2020, Azella has offices in Kansas City and Boca Raton, Florida, with $40 billion in assets under management. It employs five but plans to add more this year, including a CTO. It previously secured $90,000 from the Fountain Innovation Fund, $10,000 through the Pure Pitch Rally and $20,000 from Digital Sandbox KC.
CryptoSlam
Overland Park-based CryptoSlam kicked off the year with a $9 million seed round filled with big-name players such as serial investor Mark Cuban and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. The round added strategic investors who can open doors to new partnerships and other opportunities, CEO and founder Randy Wasinger said.
CryptoSlam, founded in December 2018, provides transparency in the nonfungible token industry (NFT), aggregating data from blockchains and NFT collections. Its website attracts thousands of daily users with data on NFT performance and history. Forbes, TechCrunch, Reuters and other media outlets have cited the startup’s data.
In 2022, CryptoSlam plans to significantly increase the number of NFTs it tracks and enhance its analytics and discovery tools.
“We’ll be rapidly scaling up our team to support the accelerating demands of organizing NFT data across all blockchains,” Wasinger said. “Although our mandate is to organize and provide discovery for the Web3 industry (a World Wide Web evolution based on blockchain technology), our product itself has been entirely Web1 so far. In 2022, look for us to parlay our strong brand, solid user base and growing data set with innovative offerings that push the boundaries of what’s possible with Web3.”
The Market Base
The Market Base has grown to $1 million in revenue and a 21-member team since launching its marketing software in 2020. The performance helped it earn the Emerging Business Award from the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce last year. Earlier this year, it attracted a buyer.
The software uses artificial intelligence to run marketing campaigns and gives entrepreneurs and small business owners marketing analytics, project management and communication tools. The Kansas City startup provides its services for a flat subscription fee paid monthly, quarterly or yearly.
Founder and CEO Jannae Gammage said the startup was acquired Jan. 11 by Kansas City-based Techquity Digital LLC, a minority- and woman-owned tech and consulting company that builds web and mobile applications. The combined company will adopt a new name, with Gammage becoming COO.
Joining Techquity gives The Market Base the financial backing to pursue new revenue streams, add features and build out software targeting larger brands. It’s all about growth this year, Gammage said.
“With this larger support, network and money, we are really going to see the impact that Market Base truly has the potential to make,” she said.
MatchRite Care
Patients and caregivers face challenges in easily accessing medical records from multiple doctors, so Chris Jones provided a solution.
Founded in 2018, Kansas City-based MatchRite Care LLC is a software platform that allows patients and their dependents to access personal medical records and share them with doctors — all in one place. It is connected to more than 30 health systems in seven states and is accessible via Medicare.
“The patient really is in control of their information without being held back by any of the health systems or hospitals or tied into a bureaucratic process,” Jones said.
In addition to recent funding from Digital Sandbox KC, WeWork and its involvement with Pipeline Inc., MatchRite raised $480,000 in a preseed round and aims to raise a $2.5 million round by the end of the year.
Jones said the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will be connected to the app by March. Public access will be opened by the end of the first quarter. Jones also plans to announce a CTO and chief strategy officer before the end of the year.
MoodSpark
Eliot Arnold didn’t have to look far for inspiration to see the need for a product like MoodSpark. The device detects signs of stress and sadness in seniors and responds with personalized cues for conversation and memories, and video visits from family and friends.
Arnold, CEO and co-founder of Telememory Holding Corp., said he was influenced by the needs of his late father, who had Alzheimer’s, as he and co-founder and CTO Martin Bukowski developed MoodSpark in 2020.
The Kansas City company is a graduate of Techstars Kansas City and received funding from Digital Sandbox KC and the Kansas Innovation & Technology Enterprise program. Arnold was selected for KC Digital Drive’s Comeback KC ventures fellowship program.
The company has a pilot project with Delmar Gardens Enterprises that deploys MoodSpark at Delmar Gardens’ Lenexa facility.
This year, the company plans to continue working to develop partnerships and improve MoodSpark.
“Our investments in artificial intelligence will be used to improve the computer’s vision for aged faces while also providing early intervention for loneliness, anxiety and depression,” Arnold said.
TealHouse Labs
TealHouse Labs Inc. wants to show that people can have fashionable shoes with a much smaller environmental footprint.
Co-founder and CEO Jaqui McCarthy and co-founder and head of engineering Bobby Lounsbury aim to bring sustainable and ethical fashion products to Kansas City, tapping into its fashion history roots. In addition to developing materials and software toward this aim, TealHouse has a line of vegan footwear.
“There’s a huge market waiting to be tapped, and Kansas City is the perfect place to do it,” McCarthy said.
Founded in June 2020, TealHouse is developing 42 products and has five in research and development.
The company raised an angel round in 2020, and its concept products have been featured in more than 50 publications and worn by celebrities like Vivica Fox, Ariana DeBose and Miss New York.
McCarthy said she also is working on a system to authenticate TealHouse’s products using NFT technology rather than paper.
TripleBlind
TripleBlind packed 2021 with notable wins, including an $8.2 million oversubscribed seed round and a $24 million Series A round co-led by the Mayo Clinic and venture capital firm General Catalyst. The startup also rounded out its leadership team with four hires, including a senior vice president of health care who previously was a medical director at Mayo.
Founded in 2019, TripleBlind developed a private data-sharing solution that helps businesses commercialize data and algorithms while preserving privacy and adhering to regulatory compliance.
It has targeted health care and financial services but sees potential to expand to other sectors this year. It has grown to 35 employees and set “aggressive growth targets” for revenue and new hires, CEO and co-founder Riddhiman Das said. It plans to add dozens of employees and is on the hunt for a CTO, a title Das holds.
“There is no playbook for how to grow a company that just started a couple months before a global pandemic,” he said. “We had to evolve and adjust on the fly. How quickly we’ve been able to grow is a testament to how much the world needs solutions like us.”
Vetelligence
Filling out more than 350 applications before landing a job in 2014 taught Zachary Oshinbanjo that there needed to be a better way to match employer needs with the skills of military veterans like himself.
Oshinbanjo founded Vetelligence to use data and artificial intelligence to help employers find not just veterans, but the right veterans, for openings.
“We’re taking an approach that we feel better qualifies us to be able to employ or get some of these veterans through direct partnerships and relationships with universities, organizations and agencies in the Kansas City communities,” he said.
Vetelligence is connecting with veterans, employers and recruiters.
The Pure Pitch Rally was Vetelligence’s entry into the Kansas City startup community. In 2022, Oshinbanjo plans to engage the community at large, launch the startup’s minimum viable product by June and release a beta program and pilot in the Kansas City area.
The company also is in the early stages of an angel round projected to close before May. Oshinbanjo was selected for the latest cohort of Pipeline Pathways, a new Pipeline Inc. program.
Vytelle
Kansas City-based Vytelle ranked among the top local deals for 2021, harvesting $15.3 million in capital.
The startup formed in 2020 when multiple companies joined forces. It developed an innovative in vitro fertilization platform for livestock that includes an animal performance data capture system and an artificial intelligence-based genetic analytics tool to help ranchers choose the best animals to breed. It solves what Vytelle dubs the triple challenge: finding a more sustainable way to increase meat and milk production, all while ensuring that producers remain profitable.
“Genetic progress is the only permanent and compounding solution to that issue,” CEO and co-founder Kerryann Kocher said.
Vytelle added more than 1,200 clients last year and shattered its embryo production record. It also hired 47 employees, bringing the total headcount to 100. Vytelle plans similar employee growth in 2022 and recently hired its first vice president of product development.
Also in store this year is building additional laboratories globally to meet customer demand and expanding its business to new geographies.
“Our primary focus is around scaling the business,” Kocher said.
