The semifinalists for the NEXT Venture Pitch 2021 have just been announced, with 30 companies vying for a coveted spot to present at the Venture Atlanta showcase Oct. 20-21.
Among them, a solution for those with colostomy bags, a social network for land development, a method to convert motorcycles from gas-powered to electric, a reinvention of bubble wrap packaging and a rapidly growing retool of local media, to name just a few.
This year’s pitch, to be held Sept. 16, will be the largest gathering of venture capital firms in Greenville history.
A combination of pitch competition, seminars, keynote speaking events, executive education resources and more, the 6th annual Venture Pitch will host more than 20 investors from across the nation.
The goal of the competition is to provide local companies the opportunity for growth, thereby elevating Greenville’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, said Christy Ashkettle, director of community engagement with NEXT.
Here’s a look at the top 30 finalists for this year’s event.
3 Mountains
The creator of an innovative, nonalcoholic beverage brewed for kegs and cans, 3 Mountains aims to bring “conscious commerce” to the beverage industry. Specializing in Tima Tea, a loose-leaf, organic, fair trade and plastic-free tea, and Sarilla sparkling African tea, the world’s first draft-style tea developed in kegs like beer but without the alcohol, the company sources directly from farmer cooperatives and genocide survivors in Rwanda.
6AM City
The popular newsletter-first local media company, which holds the distinction as being the fastest growing in the country, curates and delivers relevant local news, events and marketing opportunities to specific markets across the country. With a conversational tone and a design focused on maximum engagement, the company is expanding rapidly across the nation.
Agri-Tech Producers
The company’s patented Combined Remediation Biomass and Bio-Product Production Process (CRBBP) may have a long name, but its function is simple: do good things. On a technical level, the process rethinks how bio-crops uptake nutrients, pollutants and other problematic substances from soil and water, allowing for a tailored solution that yields the most positive results.
Anduin
With artificial intelligence as its driver, Anduin aims to fix the work-to-cash cycle to help accounting firms save time, speed up cash flow and deliver a superior client experience. The name of the company, derived from the fast-moving river in J.R.R.Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, is meant to capture Anduin’s goal of speeding up operations for client companies.
Blue Recruit
If you think sorting through resumes and job posts takes too much time, Blue Recruit proposes a solution. The company matches skilled tradespeople to hiring companies based on the experience and certifications in demand. Aiming to make the process easier for employers and job seekers, the specialized platform cuts through the fluff and gets right to the point.
Bubble Paper
If you grew up loving to pop the bubbles in plastic bubble packaging (or if you still do), then Bubble Paper is here to disappoint. But the company that has created an eco-friendly packaging product that uses natural paper that leaves no residue, generates 1/20th the carbon emissions of plastic wrap and offers curbside recyclability and biodegradability also wants to assure its customers that “the best bubbles don’t pop!”
Debt Book
The company specializes in helping finance teams in local government, higher education and health care manage their debt and lease portfolio in the cloud. When a government or nonprofit is looking to take on a major new project, Debt Book aims to provide easy-to-use software that cuts through the confusion of spreadsheets, dated information, meetings and analysis.
Delta Bravo Artificial Intelligence
With a line of customers that include Rolls-Royce, AccuWeather, Gulfstream, Continental and more, the company is already making a splash with its industrial strength predictive analytics platform for manufacturing and smart cities.
Finmark
The financial planning software for startups is intent on simplifying how companies manage their runway, hiring and cash. Think Carta, but instead of being the dominant winner moving startup cap tables out of spreadsheets, Finmark strives to do so for financial models.
Freeman Capital
A company with strong social aspirations, Freeman Capital knows its target audience: people of color in search of generational wealth. This investment app provides a hyper-personalized wealth plan that simplifies comprehensive wealth management into a monthly subscription service.
GeoGraph Technologies
For network operators looking to transform their digital paper records, GeoGraph offers its CrescentLink product, a GIS mapping software buoyed by an institutional knowledge of advanced fiber, copper and COAX.
Inductive Ventures
With a magnetic braking solution that never wears our, Inductive Ventures seeks to drastically reduce the operational, logistical and maintenance costs of a vehicle over its life cycle. By replacing the friction brake with solid state magnetics, the company seeks to create a future in which wheels never wear.
Land Intelligence
Why is there no central operating system to research, finance and trade deals in land development? Land Intelligence aims to fill that gap with LandSUITE, its SaaS platform that allows developers to make more money and avoid bad deals faster.
Lightgliders
While Christian media has been a dominant cultural and spiritual force across the nation, the dearth of video games rooted in Christian faith are less commonplace. Lightgliders is a digital game world of faith and fun for kids aged 6-12 meant to create “redeeming screen time.”
Obsidio
In technical terms, the company is pioneering a biomaterial platform technology to enable minimally-invasive occlusion of blood vessels with broad applications in interventional radiology and interventional oncology. In laymen’s terms, the company wants to use its platform to control bleeding, close off blood vessels, supply blood to tumors, treat aneurysms and more.
Offeroo
Finding a “for sale by owner” sign in front of a house is common enough but collecting all off-market properties on one platform? Not so much. Offeroo is a web-based service to help homebuyers make offers on off-market properties, not just homes listed on the MLS.
Omedym
Spelled “My Demo” backwards, Omedym is a buyer enablement platform that wants to make it easy for prospects and customers to get answers to their questions about a company, its products and its services by transforming existing presentations, demos, webinars and more into smart, watchable assets that are searchable via text and keywords.
Outdoor Access
With “unlock the outdoors” as its tag line, the company’s goal is to cater to landowners and outdoor enthusiasts by making private land available for short and long-term rental for recreation, hunting, fishing, target shooting, relic hunting, horseback riding and more.
Pensievision
Using AI-based software with active optics hardware, the company is creating low-cost and portable 3D imaging for medical, commercial and industrial applications. Its product, CervImage, is the world’s first portable colposcope to deliver high-res, all-focus, 3D images for early detection of pre-cancerous lesions of the cervix.
ProAxion
With a desire to improve operations in industrial maintenance machines, the company offers sophisticated analytics in an easy-to-use format to transform the way companies manage predictive maintenance.
ProctorFree
An on-demand, easy-to-use and cost-effective online proctoring solution for higher education institutions and professional organizations, the company bills itself as the “Zoom for proctoring online exams and quizzes.”
Resilient Biotics
Its “antibiotic replacement” product consists of aerosol delivered live probiotics for respiratory health with both human and animal health applications. The goal is to provide more effective treatment strategies while reducing dependency on antibiotics.
ScopeStack
The company’s web-based software platform takes the traditionally-complex process of creating pricing and statements of work for IT service companies and simplifies it, allowing quick and accurate results.
Servosity
The data server company’s goal is simple: give clients “rock-solid” data backups for a low, monthly investment. Clients can bring their own cloud or use Servosity’s, whatever option is best for them, with data backed up on any device, on any platform and at any time.
Shandoka: Electric Motorcycles
By converting existing motorcycles from gas to electric drive with a bolt-on structural adapter, Shandoka ensures that no motorcycles are ever obsolete again, with modular retrofit kits installed by a trained builders network.
Stark RFID/EXO
Instead of scanning each individual item at a store, STARK RFID/EXO is a contactless retail checkout solution that scans a shopping bag of items simultaneously in a fraction of a section, instantly populating a mobile checkout experience or POS register.
Stomagienics
The company provides a prescribed, single-use, consumable hygiene product used during ostomy pouch replacement, allowing ostomates to easily switch pouches without the risk of rashes or other negative health outcomes.
Tested HQ
This research technology platform delivers programmatic access to first-party survey data. Consumer product companies can improve their product development process with quick-and-easy-to-access data, allowing for a more successful product launch through end-user field testing.
Tyrata
Providing fully-automated tire logistics and data services, the company aims to transform how truck fleets manage and use tires. Its data portal serves as a comprehensive platform for data collection, storage and analysis with no hardware or software costs.
Zylo Therapeutics
The company seeks to bring sustained release topical drugs without the use of patches. With patented silica particles called Z-pods, Zylo delivers — in a sustained and controlled manner — therapeutics and cosmetic agents through topical administration.
