Every month, we recap the biggest tech and startup happenings in Rhode Island. (To get this info every Tuesday, sign up for the Rhode Island Inno Beat newsletter.)
Let’s dive in.
More than two years after Brown University students Maggie Bachenberg and Trisha Ballakur teamed up to create Pointz, a micro-mobility startup focused on mapping out lower-stress routing to bike and scooter riders, their app has attracted attention on Product Hunt as it broke through the top 10 in January. Product Hunt showcases new products that have recently been launched with the most popular being featured in the day's newsletter Pointz shot up to the No. 6 spot with its alpha version of the app, making the email's subject line "Waze for Bikes."
After years of development, Providence-based company Smoltap released its proprietary technology, which holds infants undergoing the procedure in an upright and stable position. Smoltap has now entered the market this year with multiple children's hospitals purchasing the product. The Providence-based company is currently manufacturing more than 500 devices in Taiwan, with the first shipment of 50 arriving last month which went to distributors fulfilling initial hospital orders and sales demo units.
In January, RI Inno highlighted Blackburn Labs owners Rob and wife Julie Blackburn, who have worked with businesses ranging from the healthcare sector and life sciences to gaming and education. As a company that works with a lot of startups, Blackburn said sometimes the client and company don't match up. So, instead of turning them away, Blackburn Labs built DevLess, a free, no-code app development platform for small businesses and organizations.
Last month, RI Inno caught up with Social Enterprise Greenhouse’s new Chief Executive Officer Hina Musa. After immigrating to the U.S. with her family from Pakistan at an early age, she went on to put in more than a decade of work with international, government, and social impact organizations. Musa succeeds Kelly Ramirez, SEG’s former co-founder and CEO, who left the organization last year to lead Providence College’s inaugural Donald Ryan Incubator for Entrepreneurship in the Arts & Sciences.
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A new accelerator called bETA — BIPOC Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition — launched in January to give aspiring BIPOC entrepreneurs in Rhode Island the knowledge, tools and access to capital they need to acquire and run an already existing and successful small business. The New Majority Capital Foundation introduced the eight-week program last month. According to New Majority Capital co-founder Darryl Lindie, there is a major opportunity to change the landscape of business ownership and close the racial and gender wealth gap in Rhode Island and the U.S. more broadly. He said bETA is designed specifically to address those gaps.
Almost three years after its founding, ShopLocalRI.com launched a new redesigned website that features an updated marketplace where more than 50 vendors have posted hundreds of items for sale. In January, founders Lori Giuttari and Scott Indermaur said the site has morphed into a membership-based marketplace and tool for small businesses in Rhode Island to expand their brand.
After piloting its program with a few Stop & Shop locations in Rhode Island in 2021, Flashfood, an app-based marketplace that connects consumers with discounted food nearing its best-by date, has expanded statewide. Flashfood launched about a year ago, starting with one Stop & Shop in Pawtucket and four others scattered around Providence. Now, the app will now be available in all 21 stores across Rhode Island.
As a former pediatrician at Hasbro Children's Hospital, Dr. Sandra Musial knows that eating healthy — emphasizing fruits, veggies, whole grains and low-fat options — can lead to a healthy life. RI Inno spoke to Musial, who previously taught pediatric residents and co-founded the HEALTH (Healthy Eating Active Living Through Hasbro) clinic, recently formed Plant Docs as a non-profit in Rhode Island.
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