Startups – they start with a problem: A mom overwhelmed by the tidal wave of toys required to entertain a toddler; a defendant learning that no, Judge Judy is not running the court; and a surgeon overcome by the grief of a voiceless patient.
Then comes the idea — a toy subscription to cut down on clutter and waste; a platform to help a litigant represent herself in court sans attorney; an AI-fueled technology to allow patients to "talk" without using their own voice boxes.
Startups throughout the Triangle are solving a wide variety of problems, from childhood blindness to snacking without the fear of having to break out an EpiPen. And they promise to keep solving problems. In 2022, here are 22 that Triangle Business Journal is watching.
View the gallery to see why these are Triangle Inno's 22 startups to watch in 2022.
22 Triangle startups to Watch in 2022
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Triangle Inno's 22 Startups to Watch in 2022
Triangle Business Journal photo illustration, Getty Images
Atsena Therapeutics
Founders: Sanford Boye, Shannon Boye
City: Durham
Year: 2019
The Durham firm targets gene therapies to treat blindness disorders in children. It made headlines for a whopping $55 million raise in 2020 from the likes of Hatteras Venture Partners and Sofinnova Investments, raising its total cash haul to $63.2 million. Specifically, it’s targeting gene therapies for what’s known as GUCY2D-associated Leber congenital amaurosis, one of the most common causes of blindness in children. Atsena has licensed the exclusive rights to the gene therapy from French pharma giant Sanofi. And it’s currently in clinical trials.
Founders: Sanford Boye, Shannon Boye
City: Durham
Year: 2019
The Durham firm targets gene therapies to treat blindness disorders in children. It made headlines for a whopping $55 million raise in 2020 from the likes of Hatteras Venture Partners and Sofinnova Investments, raising its total cash haul to $63.2 million. Specifically, it’s targeting gene therapies for what’s known as GUCY2D-associated Leber congenital amaurosis, one of the most common causes of blindness in children. Atsena has licensed the exclusive rights to the gene therapy from French pharma giant Sanofi. And it’s currently in clinical trials.
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Courtroom5
Founders: Debra Slone, Sonja Ebron
City: Durham
Year: 2019
Durham-based “justice access” startup Courtroom5 began like many companies – with frustration. Co-founder Sonja Ebron found herself in court, again, without a lawyer. And while she “managed to figure it out” in the end, she couldn’t help but think about others in her position who didn’t have the same educational advantages. That line of thinking had her co-founding Courtroom5 with fellow former college professor Debra Slone. The goal? To make justice accessible. “In societies where access to justice doesn’t exist, you really ultimately have a problem with your democracy,” she says. The firm developed a platform that helps an average person to do about 80 percent of the work — no lawyer required. And that’s a big deal, as attorneys typically average $300 an hour, and can spend upwards of 200 hours representing you on one case. Ebron sees the mission as particularly important now amid the attention being placed on justice inequality. People of color, she says, “tend to find ourselves in court more often than other people.”
Founders: Debra Slone, Sonja Ebron
City: Durham
Year: 2019
Durham-based “justice access” startup Courtroom5 began like many companies – with frustration. Co-founder Sonja Ebron found herself in court, again, without a lawyer. And while she “managed to figure it out” in the end, she couldn’t help but think about others in her position who didn’t have the same educational advantages. That line of thinking had her co-founding Courtroom5 with fellow former college professor Debra Slone. The goal? To make justice accessible. “In societies where access to justice doesn’t exist, you really ultimately have a problem with your democracy,” she says. The firm developed a platform that helps an average person to do about 80 percent of the work — no lawyer required. And that’s a big deal, as attorneys typically average $300 an hour, and can spend upwards of 200 hours representing you on one case. Ebron sees the mission as particularly important now amid the attention being placed on justice inequality. People of color, she says, “tend to find ourselves in court more often than other people.”
Triangle Business Journal photo illustration, Getty Images
Diveplane
Founder: Mike Capps
City: Raleigh
Year: 2017
Mike Capps founded machine-learning startup DivePlane after “retiring” as president of Epic Games. It emerged from stealth mode in 2019, pushing out what Capps has called “trainable” AI. Capps describes the technology as a “black box” for AI, a technology platform that allows machines to make better decisions, and for their operators to actually understand what’s driving those choices. And initially, it’s targeting the autonomous vehicle space. “We just closed a big deal,” he teased a few weeks ago. “I can’t talk about it yet, but it’s got our team humming.”
Founder: Mike Capps
City: Raleigh
Year: 2017
Mike Capps founded machine-learning startup DivePlane after “retiring” as president of Epic Games. It emerged from stealth mode in 2019, pushing out what Capps has called “trainable” AI. Capps describes the technology as a “black box” for AI, a technology platform that allows machines to make better decisions, and for their operators to actually understand what’s driving those choices. And initially, it’s targeting the autonomous vehicle space. “We just closed a big deal,” he teased a few weeks ago. “I can’t talk about it yet, but it’s got our team humming.”
Triangle Business Journal photo illustration, Getty Images
EarthOptics
Founder: Lars Dyrud
City: Raleigh
Year: 2018
EarthOptics, formerly known as GroundTruth Ag, is one of the firms to spin out of the Agtech Accelerator in Research Triangle Park. The company, which counts chemical giant Bayer as one of its backers, is trying to be the “Google Maps” of farming. CEO Lars Dyrud says the goal is to “take soil measurements into the 21st century” by using tiny soil samples to glean a wealth of information — data farmers can use to make decisions. Dyrud says a billion dollars is lost in tilling soil that, as it’s not actually compacted, never needed tilling at all. Earth Optics allows farmers to better identify which stretches of their acreage actually need tilling. And that could save farmers serious cash. The company was founded out of technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and closed on a fresh $10 million round of capital earlier this year.
Founder: Lars Dyrud
City: Raleigh
Year: 2018
EarthOptics, formerly known as GroundTruth Ag, is one of the firms to spin out of the Agtech Accelerator in Research Triangle Park. The company, which counts chemical giant Bayer as one of its backers, is trying to be the “Google Maps” of farming. CEO Lars Dyrud says the goal is to “take soil measurements into the 21st century” by using tiny soil samples to glean a wealth of information — data farmers can use to make decisions. Dyrud says a billion dollars is lost in tilling soil that, as it’s not actually compacted, never needed tilling at all. Earth Optics allows farmers to better identify which stretches of their acreage actually need tilling. And that could save farmers serious cash. The company was founded out of technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and closed on a fresh $10 million round of capital earlier this year.
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EDJX
Founders: John Cowan, (pictured); James Thomason
City: Raleigh
Year: 2018
The Raleigh edge computing startup spun out of Raleigh’s 6fusion and has raised $24 million. The company has developed a platform intended to make it easy to write IoT applications using “rerverless computing.” Its website describes it as dealing in “a new kind of cloud at the near-edge, within the last thousand feet to billions of connected people, devices and things.” The firm recently partnered with Cubic Corporation to launch what it’s calling “the world’s first Internet of Military Things Edge Platform.” Stakes are high for the firm’s success — but so, too, is the competition. The company is pitted up against big cloud firms such as Amazon and Google.
Founders: John Cowan, (pictured); James Thomason
City: Raleigh
Year: 2018
The Raleigh edge computing startup spun out of Raleigh’s 6fusion and has raised $24 million. The company has developed a platform intended to make it easy to write IoT applications using “rerverless computing.” Its website describes it as dealing in “a new kind of cloud at the near-edge, within the last thousand feet to billions of connected people, devices and things.” The firm recently partnered with Cubic Corporation to launch what it’s calling “the world’s first Internet of Military Things Edge Platform.” Stakes are high for the firm’s success — but so, too, is the competition. The company is pitted up against big cloud firms such as Amazon and Google.
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Finmark
Founders: Rami Essaid (pictured); Greg Lissy; Jeremy Neuberger
City: Raleigh
Year: 2020
The financial planning software firm has found quick traction. In 2020, five months after it was founded, the firm successfully closed on a $5 million seed round led by Durham’s Idea Fund Partners. Part of investors’ confidence can be tied to Rami Essaid, its co-founder, who saw a successful exit with his last venture, security software firm Distil Networks.
Lister Delgado, managing partner of Idea Fund Partners, has also praised its go-to-market strategy of “working with investors to help spread the word.” Essaid says the idea for Finmark was born out of issues he ran into while at Distil. “A bad financial model almost killed us,” Essaid says. “At the time, I thought, why are we doing this in Excel? How did we almost run out of money because of a bad formula in Excel?” Finmark, which participated in Y Combinator in 2020, aims to provide financial modeling for startups.
Founders: Rami Essaid (pictured); Greg Lissy; Jeremy Neuberger
City: Raleigh
Year: 2020
The financial planning software firm has found quick traction. In 2020, five months after it was founded, the firm successfully closed on a $5 million seed round led by Durham’s Idea Fund Partners. Part of investors’ confidence can be tied to Rami Essaid, its co-founder, who saw a successful exit with his last venture, security software firm Distil Networks.
Lister Delgado, managing partner of Idea Fund Partners, has also praised its go-to-market strategy of “working with investors to help spread the word.” Essaid says the idea for Finmark was born out of issues he ran into while at Distil. “A bad financial model almost killed us,” Essaid says. “At the time, I thought, why are we doing this in Excel? How did we almost run out of money because of a bad formula in Excel?” Finmark, which participated in Y Combinator in 2020, aims to provide financial modeling for startups.
Triangle Business Journal photo illustration, Getty Images
Floodlight Software
Founders: Nasrin Azari (pictured); Justin Boeckler
City: Cary
Year: 2019
Floodlight Software aims to digitize inspections and testing — eliminating the need for paper forms and filing cabinets. The company, a spin-out of enterprise mobility solutions provider Mobile Reach, creates what CEO Nasrin Azari calls an “end-to-end” field service product specifically for testing and inspection companies.
“They’re trying to get rid of all the paper that they use during their work and replace it with digital tools, digital processes in order to gain efficiencies and visibility into their operations,” Azari says. And the market is broader than one might think, as practically everything is tested. “Every piece of food you put in your mouth, the pipelines that run into your backyard, every component that goes into an airplane,” she says. With Floodlight, those companies “have an electronic record of the data they’ve collected,” Azari says, which is particularly important for services that are also highly regulated.
Founders: Nasrin Azari (pictured); Justin Boeckler
City: Cary
Year: 2019
Floodlight Software aims to digitize inspections and testing — eliminating the need for paper forms and filing cabinets. The company, a spin-out of enterprise mobility solutions provider Mobile Reach, creates what CEO Nasrin Azari calls an “end-to-end” field service product specifically for testing and inspection companies.
“They’re trying to get rid of all the paper that they use during their work and replace it with digital tools, digital processes in order to gain efficiencies and visibility into their operations,” Azari says. And the market is broader than one might think, as practically everything is tested. “Every piece of food you put in your mouth, the pipelines that run into your backyard, every component that goes into an airplane,” she says. With Floodlight, those companies “have an electronic record of the data they’ve collected,” Azari says, which is particularly important for services that are also highly regulated.
Triangle Business Journal photo illustration, Getty Images
Flux Hybrids
Founders: Clay Dowdey, Micah Ulrich, Cody Biederman, August Erhart
City: Raleigh
Year: 2019
The N.C. State University-founded startup is working on a technology meant to convert gas guzzlers into hybrid vehicles. “Basically, we just take an electric power train and add it to your car’s existing power train,” co-founder Micah Ulrich says. “It has the same gas power it always had… you can just now pull gas or electric.” The company, which recently won a seed grant from North Carolina IDEA Foundation, is targeting its technology at commercial fleets. It’s still in the testing phase, and the next few years will be make or break for the company. But if the founders’ bet pays off, the company, which recently hired its first outside employee, could make a real difference in carbon emissions. It takes cash, however. The firm has raised more than $200,000 and is on the hunt for more. Ulrich estimates “there’s $250,000 more in the grant pipeline” and he’s preparing pitches.
Founders: Clay Dowdey, Micah Ulrich, Cody Biederman, August Erhart
City: Raleigh
Year: 2019
The N.C. State University-founded startup is working on a technology meant to convert gas guzzlers into hybrid vehicles. “Basically, we just take an electric power train and add it to your car’s existing power train,” co-founder Micah Ulrich says. “It has the same gas power it always had… you can just now pull gas or electric.” The company, which recently won a seed grant from North Carolina IDEA Foundation, is targeting its technology at commercial fleets. It’s still in the testing phase, and the next few years will be make or break for the company. But if the founders’ bet pays off, the company, which recently hired its first outside employee, could make a real difference in carbon emissions. It takes cash, however. The firm has raised more than $200,000 and is on the hunt for more. Ulrich estimates “there’s $250,000 more in the grant pipeline” and he’s preparing pitches.
Triangle Business Journal photo illustration, Getty Images
Green Places
Founder: Alex Lassiter
City: Raleigh
Year: 2021
Green Places, through its technology, wants to be the “chief sustainability officer” for businesses. It was founded by Alex Lassiter, whose last startup, hospitality platform GatherTechnologies, sold to private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. Lassiter says that, during the pandemic, “I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do next.” I was really drawn to do something to put my strengths next to something I really cared about,” he says.
Green Places’ technology aims to calculate the carbon footprint of a small business “in less than a minute.” And then the subscription-based service can help small businesses figure out how to reduce their emissions. While it only launched this year, Green Places has secured backers who are well-known to the startup scene, entrepreneurs such as Jesse Lipson (ShareFile and Real Magic), Scot Wingo (ChannelAdvisor, Get Spiffy), Joe Colopy and Chaz Felix (Bronto Software) and Todd Olson (Pendo), to name a few. The entrepreneurs took a $1 million bet on the firm’s success earlier this year.
Founder: Alex Lassiter
City: Raleigh
Year: 2021
Green Places, through its technology, wants to be the “chief sustainability officer” for businesses. It was founded by Alex Lassiter, whose last startup, hospitality platform GatherTechnologies, sold to private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. Lassiter says that, during the pandemic, “I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do next.” I was really drawn to do something to put my strengths next to something I really cared about,” he says.
Green Places’ technology aims to calculate the carbon footprint of a small business “in less than a minute.” And then the subscription-based service can help small businesses figure out how to reduce their emissions. While it only launched this year, Green Places has secured backers who are well-known to the startup scene, entrepreneurs such as Jesse Lipson (ShareFile and Real Magic), Scot Wingo (ChannelAdvisor, Get Spiffy), Joe Colopy and Chaz Felix (Bronto Software) and Todd Olson (Pendo), to name a few. The entrepreneurs took a $1 million bet on the firm’s success earlier this year.
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IMMvention Therapeutix
Founders: Jenny Ting, Anil Goyal
City: Chapel Hill
Year: 2017
The company is focused on therapies to combat inflammation, its technology targeting auto-inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, gout and Alzheimer’s disease. IMMvention is built around its “first-in-class” pan-inflammasome small-molecule inhibitors, which the company said can provide for “more effective control of inflammation.” It’s been backed by both the National Institutes of Health and the N.C. Biotechnology Center. The company’s total cash haul is nearly $6.9 million in outside capital according to securities filings. The company also has UNC-Chapel Hill ties, as its scientific co-founder, Jenny Ting, is a professor of genetics at the university.
Founders: Jenny Ting, Anil Goyal
City: Chapel Hill
Year: 2017
The company is focused on therapies to combat inflammation, its technology targeting auto-inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, gout and Alzheimer’s disease. IMMvention is built around its “first-in-class” pan-inflammasome small-molecule inhibitors, which the company said can provide for “more effective control of inflammation.” It’s been backed by both the National Institutes of Health and the N.C. Biotechnology Center. The company’s total cash haul is nearly $6.9 million in outside capital according to securities filings. The company also has UNC-Chapel Hill ties, as its scientific co-founder, Jenny Ting, is a professor of genetics at the university.
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Klearly
Founders: Matt Webbink, Alex Krawchick, Eric Pfahl
City: Durham
Year: 2017
Klearly bills itself as an intelligent GPS for revenue-focused B2B marketing teams, giving firms “the real-time confidence to know exactly which accounts to prioritize.” Klearly, which closed on $3.7 million in outside capital, uses data science and machine learning to help marketing, sales and customer success teams understand how they’re contributing to the business. And its CEO, Alex Krawchick, has worked in both the analytics and marketing space as a former marketing manager at SAS and an ex-demand generation director at HireVue. It has had a big year, having been chosen to pitch on the main stage at Venture Atlanta in October.
Founders: Matt Webbink, Alex Krawchick, Eric Pfahl
City: Durham
Year: 2017
Klearly bills itself as an intelligent GPS for revenue-focused B2B marketing teams, giving firms “the real-time confidence to know exactly which accounts to prioritize.” Klearly, which closed on $3.7 million in outside capital, uses data science and machine learning to help marketing, sales and customer success teams understand how they’re contributing to the business. And its CEO, Alex Krawchick, has worked in both the analytics and marketing space as a former marketing manager at SAS and an ex-demand generation director at HireVue. It has had a big year, having been chosen to pitch on the main stage at Venture Atlanta in October.
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Levitate
Founder: Jesse Lipson
City: Raleigh
Year: 2017
Levitate is a company with serious entrepreneurial pedigree, as its founder, Jesse Lipson, also founded ShareFile, the firm whose $93 million acquisition brought Citrix to Raleigh. But Lipson is doing things differently this time. While ShareFile was bootstrapped, he has been pitching — and winning — major capital this time around. So far, he’s accumulated $20 million in outside capital (including $8 million earlier this year from investors such as Bull City Venture Partners and Tippet Venture Partners). And he’s putting it to work. Levitate has developed a marketing software platform designed to help businesses keep in touch and engaged with their networks. Early in 2021, it crossed the 2,000 customer mark, and it continues to grow,
Founder: Jesse Lipson
City: Raleigh
Year: 2017
Levitate is a company with serious entrepreneurial pedigree, as its founder, Jesse Lipson, also founded ShareFile, the firm whose $93 million acquisition brought Citrix to Raleigh. But Lipson is doing things differently this time. While ShareFile was bootstrapped, he has been pitching — and winning — major capital this time around. So far, he’s accumulated $20 million in outside capital (including $8 million earlier this year from investors such as Bull City Venture Partners and Tippet Venture Partners). And he’s putting it to work. Levitate has developed a marketing software platform designed to help businesses keep in touch and engaged with their networks. Early in 2021, it crossed the 2,000 customer mark, and it continues to grow,
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Lira
Founders: Dina Yamaleyeva, Andres Tello, Nga Nguyen, Alison Schaefer, Dr. Andrew Prince
City: Chapel Hill
Year: 2020
The UNC-Chapel Hill technology startup was co-founded by Dr. Andrew Prince, a head and neck surgeon, who knows how heartbreaking it can be for patients facing life-threatening situations and are unable to communicate. The startup, founded out of a UNC entrepreneurship class, has a bold goal: to give the voiceless a voice. The team has been collecting voice samples through a website and is crafting an artificial intelligence tool that, if all goes as planned, could allow voiceless patients to be a part of their own medical conversations. LiRA recently took home first place at the Ninth Annual Big Launch Challenge Pitch Competition, held recently at the N.C. Biotechnology Center — one of several wins it’s inked in entrepreneurial competitions.
Founders: Dina Yamaleyeva, Andres Tello, Nga Nguyen, Alison Schaefer, Dr. Andrew Prince
City: Chapel Hill
Year: 2020
The UNC-Chapel Hill technology startup was co-founded by Dr. Andrew Prince, a head and neck surgeon, who knows how heartbreaking it can be for patients facing life-threatening situations and are unable to communicate. The startup, founded out of a UNC entrepreneurship class, has a bold goal: to give the voiceless a voice. The team has been collecting voice samples through a website and is crafting an artificial intelligence tool that, if all goes as planned, could allow voiceless patients to be a part of their own medical conversations. LiRA recently took home first place at the Ninth Annual Big Launch Challenge Pitch Competition, held recently at the N.C. Biotechnology Center — one of several wins it’s inked in entrepreneurial competitions.
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Lolli
Founders: Alex Adelman, Matt Senter
City: Durham
Year: 2018
Lolli’s app allows users to earn free bitcoin or cash when shopping at select stores. The Durham-based startup recently added another $10 million to its coffers and has a “lot of really big initiatives in the pipeline,” according to co-founder Matt Senter.
It’s a critical time for Lolli, as new competitors emerge every day, offering their own take on retail rewards. But a lot of big-name investors are betting on the firm, such as actor Ashton Kutcher and social media influencers Noah Beck and Josh Richards. Its founders are bullish, too. Center says he sees Lolli becoming a “multibillion dollar company.” “This is crypto, first and foremost, probably the biggest thing since the internet, and we’ve got the easiest way to get people into it,” he says. Current retail partners include brands such as Lowe’s Home Improvement and PopSugar.
Founders: Alex Adelman, Matt Senter
City: Durham
Year: 2018
Lolli’s app allows users to earn free bitcoin or cash when shopping at select stores. The Durham-based startup recently added another $10 million to its coffers and has a “lot of really big initiatives in the pipeline,” according to co-founder Matt Senter.
It’s a critical time for Lolli, as new competitors emerge every day, offering their own take on retail rewards. But a lot of big-name investors are betting on the firm, such as actor Ashton Kutcher and social media influencers Noah Beck and Josh Richards. Its founders are bullish, too. Center says he sees Lolli becoming a “multibillion dollar company.” “This is crypto, first and foremost, probably the biggest thing since the internet, and we’ve got the easiest way to get people into it,” he says. Current retail partners include brands such as Lowe’s Home Improvement and PopSugar.
Triangle Business Journal photo illustration, Getty Images
Polaris Quantum Biotech
Founders: Bill Shipman, Shahar Keinan
City: Durham
Year: 2020
The Durham startup is trying to use quantum computing to speed up drug development and investors have bought in, as the firm closed on more than $2.9 million in equity financing earlier this year. Polaris is developing a drug discovery platform using quantum computing to speed up the process for pharmaceutical development by scanning billions of molecules – quickly.
The company’s CEO, chemist Shahar Keinan, notes the vision is bold. Its website claims the firm will produce up to 100 drug blueprints per year, shrinking the lead time for preclinical drug candidates from five years to four months. “It’s a question of finding the right problems,” Keinan says.
And it has been a big year for the firm, which recently announced a research collaboration with California-based artificial intelligence firm Auransa to develop precision medicine solutions for neglected diseases that disproportionately affect women.
Founders: Bill Shipman, Shahar Keinan
City: Durham
Year: 2020
The Durham startup is trying to use quantum computing to speed up drug development and investors have bought in, as the firm closed on more than $2.9 million in equity financing earlier this year. Polaris is developing a drug discovery platform using quantum computing to speed up the process for pharmaceutical development by scanning billions of molecules – quickly.
The company’s CEO, chemist Shahar Keinan, notes the vision is bold. Its website claims the firm will produce up to 100 drug blueprints per year, shrinking the lead time for preclinical drug candidates from five years to four months. “It’s a question of finding the right problems,” Keinan says.
And it has been a big year for the firm, which recently announced a research collaboration with California-based artificial intelligence firm Auransa to develop precision medicine solutions for neglected diseases that disproportionately affect women.
Triangle Business Journal photo illustration, Getty Images
PROTECT3D
Founders: Clark Bulleit, Kevin Gehsmann, Tim Skapek
City: Durham
Year: 2019
Three former Duke University football players founded Protect3d to ensure other athletes can keep playing and stay protected with custom 3-D printed braces, splints and pads. Co-founders Kevin Gehsmann, Clark Bulleit and Tim Skapek started making customized 3-D printed protective devices while they were still undergraduate engineering students at Duke in 2018. “Every device is designed by athletes for athletes, and we’ve trademarked the phrase ‘compete without limits’ because that’s exactly what these devices allow you to do,” says Gehsmann, who serves as CEO. The company has worked with about 30 college and professional brands, including local universities UNC, N.C. State, Duke and Wake Forest. It licenses its software and technology to athletic departments who then purchase individual products. And it creates them through an iPad scanning interface app.
Founders: Clark Bulleit, Kevin Gehsmann, Tim Skapek
City: Durham
Year: 2019
Three former Duke University football players founded Protect3d to ensure other athletes can keep playing and stay protected with custom 3-D printed braces, splints and pads. Co-founders Kevin Gehsmann, Clark Bulleit and Tim Skapek started making customized 3-D printed protective devices while they were still undergraduate engineering students at Duke in 2018. “Every device is designed by athletes for athletes, and we’ve trademarked the phrase ‘compete without limits’ because that’s exactly what these devices allow you to do,” says Gehsmann, who serves as CEO. The company has worked with about 30 college and professional brands, including local universities UNC, N.C. State, Duke and Wake Forest. It licenses its software and technology to athletic departments who then purchase individual products. And it creates them through an iPad scanning interface app.
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Pryon
Founder: Igor Jablokov
City: Raleigh
Year: 2017
Exit expectations are high for AI firm Pryon whose founder, Igor Jablokov, sold his last startup to Amazon. That company, Yap, contributed the technology for what would become Amazon’s Alexa. And Jablokov is equally bullish about his latest company, which he’s said has already spurred M&A interest. Pryon released its first product earlier this year, an automated natural language processing platform for the enterprise. The goal was to add AI capabilities without having to have special skills. The AI enables AI assistants and chatbots to understand more and give more accurate responses, answering millions of questions and enhancing search capabilities. Pryon is well-funded, having raised more than $36 million in outside capital — including a $12 million “strategic access round” earlier this year.
Founder: Igor Jablokov
City: Raleigh
Year: 2017
Exit expectations are high for AI firm Pryon whose founder, Igor Jablokov, sold his last startup to Amazon. That company, Yap, contributed the technology for what would become Amazon’s Alexa. And Jablokov is equally bullish about his latest company, which he’s said has already spurred M&A interest. Pryon released its first product earlier this year, an automated natural language processing platform for the enterprise. The goal was to add AI capabilities without having to have special skills. The AI enables AI assistants and chatbots to understand more and give more accurate responses, answering millions of questions and enhancing search capabilities. Pryon is well-funded, having raised more than $36 million in outside capital — including a $12 million “strategic access round” earlier this year.
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Reborn Clothing Co.
Founder: Emily Neville
City: Raleigh
Year: 2017
Businesses such as Delta Air Lines and Peter Millar turn to Reborn to help transform their surplus branded clothing and textile waste into new products. The company, founded by Emily Neville when she was a sophomore at N.C. State University, was initially launched as a way for consumers to turn clothing from the back of their closets into something new — such as tote bags and pillows. But Neville soon saw a larger mission: to help reduce the billions of industry-wide pounds of textile waste by partnering with companies of all sizes on up cycling, down cycling and corporate gifting solutions. The firm has had a big year, opening a North Hills storefront in July. Neville’s goal is to be profitable by the end of 2021.
Founder: Emily Neville
City: Raleigh
Year: 2017
Businesses such as Delta Air Lines and Peter Millar turn to Reborn to help transform their surplus branded clothing and textile waste into new products. The company, founded by Emily Neville when she was a sophomore at N.C. State University, was initially launched as a way for consumers to turn clothing from the back of their closets into something new — such as tote bags and pillows. But Neville soon saw a larger mission: to help reduce the billions of industry-wide pounds of textile waste by partnering with companies of all sizes on up cycling, down cycling and corporate gifting solutions. The firm has had a big year, opening a North Hills storefront in July. Neville’s goal is to be profitable by the end of 2021.
Triangle Business Journal photo illustration, Getty Images
Reflekt ME
Founders: Tope Mitchell, Gerald Mitchell
City: Fayetteville
Year: 2018
Reflekt Me CEO and co-founder Tope Mitchell was inspired to found the company after catching her daughter smiling at a mirror, “lov[ing] every part of herself.” “As a mom, I was like, whoa, I have to change the world for her,” Mitchell recalls. Reflekt Me seeks to do that – while helping e-commerce customers better connect with customers and increase sales. The company works to help brands reflect their customers – not the size four stereotype. The company has created an enterprise solution intended to help e-commerce companies actually be representative of potential customers by allowing their sites to match the characteristics of the shopper, from size to skin tone to hair texture, in the images they show. Mitchell sees a bigger mission than just driving revenues, however. She sees representation as a way to promote empathy for other people. “When humanity to you is only one color, is only one person … when people see one image they just associate that with reality,” she says.
Founders: Tope Mitchell, Gerald Mitchell
City: Fayetteville
Year: 2018
Reflekt Me CEO and co-founder Tope Mitchell was inspired to found the company after catching her daughter smiling at a mirror, “lov[ing] every part of herself.” “As a mom, I was like, whoa, I have to change the world for her,” Mitchell recalls. Reflekt Me seeks to do that – while helping e-commerce customers better connect with customers and increase sales. The company works to help brands reflect their customers – not the size four stereotype. The company has created an enterprise solution intended to help e-commerce companies actually be representative of potential customers by allowing their sites to match the characteristics of the shopper, from size to skin tone to hair texture, in the images they show. Mitchell sees a bigger mission than just driving revenues, however. She sees representation as a way to promote empathy for other people. “When humanity to you is only one color, is only one person … when people see one image they just associate that with reality,” she says.
Triangle Business Journal photo illustration, Getty Images
Tiny Earth Toys
Founder: Rachel Classi
City: Durham
Year: 2020
The Durham-based toy subscription startup launched its subscription service earlier this year and, just months in, secured a $1.5 million equity funder led by Bull City Venture Partners. Rachael Classi founded the company in 2020 after seeing how her house was consumed by plastic toys.
During the pandemic, she left her job at TeamWorks to hunker down with her two kids and quickly saw how many toys they could accumulate. And she couldn’t help but think about – in addition to the clutter they were creating – what the toys would someday mean for landfills. She saw it as a recycling problem, and started Tiny Earth Toys to tackle it head on.
The subscription service sends out high-quality toys made from natural materials for a four-month stretch. Families then send the toys back and get a new crate of products. As one investor, Spoonflower co-founder Stephen Fraser, put it, Tiny Earth Toys “is one of those companies that comes along with a powerful, clear idea that, as soon as you hear it, you think to yourself, ‘why hasn’t anyone done this before?’”
Founder: Rachel Classi
City: Durham
Year: 2020
The Durham-based toy subscription startup launched its subscription service earlier this year and, just months in, secured a $1.5 million equity funder led by Bull City Venture Partners. Rachael Classi founded the company in 2020 after seeing how her house was consumed by plastic toys.
During the pandemic, she left her job at TeamWorks to hunker down with her two kids and quickly saw how many toys they could accumulate. And she couldn’t help but think about – in addition to the clutter they were creating – what the toys would someday mean for landfills. She saw it as a recycling problem, and started Tiny Earth Toys to tackle it head on.
The subscription service sends out high-quality toys made from natural materials for a four-month stretch. Families then send the toys back and get a new crate of products. As one investor, Spoonflower co-founder Stephen Fraser, put it, Tiny Earth Toys “is one of those companies that comes along with a powerful, clear idea that, as soon as you hear it, you think to yourself, ‘why hasn’t anyone done this before?’”
Triangle Business Journal photo illustration, Getty Images
Without a Trace
Founders: Brooke Navarro, Matthew Navarro
City: Raleigh
Year: 2020
A lifetime of food allergies inspired the idea. “It started with my own personal frustration with being unable to find on-the-go snacks that are filling,” says Without a Trace Foods founder Brooke Navarro. Navarro quit her Wall Street job to go all in on the company, moving it to Raleigh and opening a manufacturing facility.
The firm, which recently won a seed grant from the North Carolina Idea Foundation, faces an uphill climb. The food space is competitive, and right now the firm self-distributes its bars and power bites. But Navarro believes the market is there for her company to succeed.“One in four Americans shop for allergen-friendly foods,” she says.
Founders: Brooke Navarro, Matthew Navarro
City: Raleigh
Year: 2020
A lifetime of food allergies inspired the idea. “It started with my own personal frustration with being unable to find on-the-go snacks that are filling,” says Without a Trace Foods founder Brooke Navarro. Navarro quit her Wall Street job to go all in on the company, moving it to Raleigh and opening a manufacturing facility.
The firm, which recently won a seed grant from the North Carolina Idea Foundation, faces an uphill climb. The food space is competitive, and right now the firm self-distributes its bars and power bites. But Navarro believes the market is there for her company to succeed.“One in four Americans shop for allergen-friendly foods,” she says.
Triangle Business Journal photo illustration, Getty Images
Wrangle
Founders: Adam Long, Adam Smith
City: Durham
Year: 2020
Raleigh process automation firm Wrangle was founded by a pair of former co-workers at Automated Insights in Durham. Adam Smith and Adam Long had watched how, as a startup’s headcount grew, so did its complexity — forming gaps in communication. So they created Wrangle to cut through those layers, founding the firm as the pandemic was starting last year. The company, which scored a seed grant from the N.C. IDEA Foundation, took a pivot this year, rebuilding its product entirely in Slack. The move paid off, Smith says. It was featured by Slack as a top app earlier this year. In a tweet, Smith said Slack had “become the nerve center” of organizations, “and it’s where all work is going to get done.” So it’s where Wrangle needed to be.
Founders: Adam Long, Adam Smith
City: Durham
Year: 2020
Raleigh process automation firm Wrangle was founded by a pair of former co-workers at Automated Insights in Durham. Adam Smith and Adam Long had watched how, as a startup’s headcount grew, so did its complexity — forming gaps in communication. So they created Wrangle to cut through those layers, founding the firm as the pandemic was starting last year. The company, which scored a seed grant from the N.C. IDEA Foundation, took a pivot this year, rebuilding its product entirely in Slack. The move paid off, Smith says. It was featured by Slack as a top app earlier this year. In a tweet, Smith said Slack had “become the nerve center” of organizations, “and it’s where all work is going to get done.” So it’s where Wrangle needed to be.
Triangle Business Journal photo illustration, Getty Images
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