Hi Team,
This is the first of the fortnightly Monday Startup Spotlight series.
I’ll be featuring Aussie/Kiwi startups which raised and want to be featured to Angels.
If you would like to get in touch with any of the founders, click the Brdg link below.
Brdg allows you to connect directly, without me slowing you down. It also gives me the insight into who connected with whom and if the meeting was fruitful.
This is my feedback loop to see if this is working.
💸 Startup Spotlight
Do you want to be featured to Angels? Fill this out (10mins) to get featured.
🛠 Operator Spotlight
Looking for a job? Get featured in the next Operator Spotlight - fill this out.
Have a job you want featured? Hit reply and send it my way.
Recently Raised
Pro tip: Companies often time their fundraising PR when they are ready to hire.
Songtradr - US$30m lead by St Baker family - here
Buildkite - $28m lead by Opeview - here
Sendle - $19m lead by King River Capital - here
Bolt - $16m lead by CEFC - here
Spaceship - $10m lead by Grok - here
Seemode - $9m lead by Blackbird - here
Hivery - AU$8m lead by Blackbird - here
CoGo - $8m lead by Enterprise Angels - here
Ofload - $2.8m lead by Maersk - here
Portainer - US$1.2m lead by Bessemer Venture Partners - here
Social Suite - $1.5m lead by Salesforce VC + Tidal - here
Douugh - $780k crowdfunded - here
Startups Keen to Connect
🚨 Disclaimer* 🚨
This is not financial advice, nor a recommendation.
Please connect with the founders directly to hear more.🖼 Art Money
AfterPay for art, a $100bn global 'niche'
Message the founder - here.
Problem
High friction, low tech, no finance (across the global art market)
Solution
Fin-tech empowers buyers and sellers. 10 payments. 10 months. No interest.
How do you know it's a problem?
$30m art sales, $10m in last 12 months. 5,000 transactions, 45% repeat purchases. Covid/recession tested (sales 140% June quarter YoY, doubled YoY in July). Once a client gets to 3 purchases, they are 80% chance of repeating, by 5 purchases they are an incredible 94% chance of repeating. Proven & break-even in AU (1% global market), product/market fit & traction in US (44% market). 29% IRR, 0.5% defaults.
What's your central unique insight?
This market is about psychology not affordability. We are art market insiders, it's a closed shop to outsiders.
👩🎓 Elenta
Effective corporate learning, by helping employees learn on the job.
Message the founder - here.
Problem
$550B AUD is spent on corporate training each year, but only 4% of companies see ROI. Right now corporate training teams don't have the right content or tools to drive business outcomes. We're giving them both.
Solution
Elenta is a platform to create, deliver, and measure Learning in the Flow of Work. We give Educators two tools:
Nudges - interactions with learners that can deliver knowledge (video, text, etc.), or capture data (surveys, quizzes, etc.)
Triggers - which define when Nudges are sent; they can be responses to other Nudges (from the learner themselves, or people on their team), or interactions with external systems
Branching logic between Nudges and Triggers automatically personalises the program for learners going through it.
How do you know it's a problem?
We know this is a problem from speaking to over 300 L&D, HR, and business leaders over the last 5 months.
We've run 7 programs, with companies including Bupa, LifeHealthCare, NGS Super, and NextGen. 3 out of these 7 are customers running a 2nd program because they liked the experience. This has put 250+ learners through the system and sent 2,100+ Nudges. Nudge feedback is 96% positive.
What's your central unique insight?
Current learning solutions focus heavily on the knowledge consumption piece, with technology rarely being used to support the feedback loop that follows. This means that spend on learning often doesn't result in behaviour change and improved business outcomes. A lack of measurement and ROI in L&D also means that there is no feedback loop to drive improvement.
👩⚖️ First AML
Streamlined KYC through automation and the creation of a network effect between AML Reporting Entities.
Message the founder - here.
Problem
KYC processes have long been intrusive, repetitive and paper-based. Traditionally individuals have been required to obtain certified copies of documents and repeat this process every time there is a new transaction. Individuals such as Directors, Shareholders and Trustees are often pulled into the KYC process even if they have no direct involvement with the transaction. This has also resulted in a significant compliance cost being added to businesses who must comply with the AML laws.
Solution
First AML is automating the KYC process to get complex entities onboarded easily in the first instance. And then once onboarded, that entity can be retrieved by another customer in the First AML ecosystem. Allowing AML records to be shared amongst participants in this ecosystem has created a step-change in AML on-boarding efficiency.
How do you know it's a problem?
150+ customers in New Zealand and Australia. ~20% month on month revenue growth.
What's your central unique insight?
KYC is too repetitive for the individuals being verified - especially in situations with complex entities and multiple people to verify/documents to obtain.
💊 Medmate
Pharmacy delivered.
Message the founder - here.
Problem
The inconvenience of pharmacy supply for regular medications.
Solution
A pharmacy marketplace application allowing patients to shop from their pharmacy of choice for home delivery. Integrating electronic prescription orders from a patients doctor to the pharmacy of their choice with delivery solutions.
How do you know it's a problem?
Telehealth consultations have risen globally since the pandemic. It is complicated for doctors and patients to safely coordinate script delivery from bricks and mortar pharmacies to patients in the home, making Telehealth difficult. Medmate enables Telehealth. Medmate has partnered for onboarding to the patients of 1,070 clinics nationally and 1,200 pharmacies. The go-to market strategy is coinciding with the governments roll out of e-script technology. The MVP is receiving positive user feedback in our test clusters within SE Melbourne with an average score of 9/10. Patients have been grateful for Medmate services considering the Victorian lockdown. To launch the product well nationally we are seeking capital and expertise from investment partners.
What's your central unique insight?
The cofounders include medical practitioners and pharmacists. 50% of patients globally are non-adherent to medications due to the logistical inconvenience of coordinating regular medication supply. The healthcare consumer has changed and a bricks and mortar experience is not meeting the needs of the modern consumer who expects price transparency, convenience and choice. The pandemic has accelerated this trend with consumers now demanding home delivery options
🌍 CarbonClick
Climate Action, Made Simple
Message the founder - here.
Problem
Consumers care about climate change, businesses must act.
Solution
Track and trace on high-quality offsets. Add to cart for consumers. Plug-ins for businesses, and for enterprise-grade businesses, easy API integration.
How do you know it's a problem?
Launched our Shopify plug-in in March, 400+ installs in first 3 months with 5* rating, 10,000 customer offset transactions to date. We're seeing strong numbers of customers clicking the green button to buy offsets - 9% on average. There's a clear pattern that stores with sustainable brand are our leading performers. However, some stores that don't have this brand are also performing well in the range of 3-6%.
What's your central unique insight?
Carbon offsets must be trustworthy, and easy to engage with
🥰 Cardly
We let people send handwritten physical mail as easily as email.
Message the founder - here.
Problem
Handwriting is highly personal but doesn’t scale.
Solution
We have build proprietary handwriting tech that can take what people type and make it look like real handwriting - even their own. We then print and post it at scale as postcards, letters or greeting cards. Even the envelopes look handwritten. This means that they are opened and have been proven to be 10 to 20 times more effective than normal direct mail.
How do you know it's a problem?
We started as a C2C business but were approached by businesses to help them reach out to clients and employees. Now 2/3 of revenue is coming from B2B. We have grown thus far with $0 marketing. Some of our customers include Adobe, Telstra, Quickbooks, CUB and Ray White.
Our turnover has doubled each year since inception - $60k, $125k, $260k through FY18,19 and 20.
We're currently 300% up YOY and growing 30% MOM through COVID accelerating our business.
What's your central unique insight?
Meaningful client engagement is invaluable and handwritten physical mail shows you care in a way that email and digital can't.
Thanks for reading until the end.
This was the inaugural Startup Spotlight - how was it?
Let me know :)