August 19, 2020, Aliso Viejo, CA. Octane, Southern California's leading accelerator announced today the top 8 LaunchPad companies that will be presenting at Tech Innovation Forum on September 8-11, 2020, a digital experience. LaunchPad ranks in the top 5 of the nations Small Business Development Centers (SBDC). Presenting companies were chosen from over 80 applications submitted to the accelerator. At Tech Innovation Forum, each company will present for 10 minutes followed by Q&A from investor judges.
Final 8 LaunchPad Companies:
Advice Analytics- Businesses spend $12B+ in 401k retirement plan compliance – yet, 70% fail their audit. Advice Analytics uniquely uses predictive analytics – for overwhelmed legacy 401k systems – to help firms stay compliant and avoid penalties. In only 6 months, we’ve acquired a contract targeting 11 million participants, achieved $50K in YTD revenues, raised $150K in outside capital, launched our MVP, and built a sales pipeline of 40 prospects. Our full-time founders have 25+ years in analytics, retirement, AI, and 4 previous startups. Further investment dramatically scales revenues to $82M ARR as Advice Analytics expands beyond its current beachhead.
AgTools- Agtools is a SaaS Food and Agriculture award Microsoft ML/AI winner, offering worldwide real-time data and intelligence like Bloomberg or Reuters for farmers, buyers and the full supply chain. It helps users manage market volatility, increase profitability and attempt to reduce food waste and CO2 of approximately 5000 daily truckloads in USA and 62,000 daily truckloads in the world from farm to distribution centers. It takes 500 commodities - fruits, vegetables and more, 67+ variables, 150+ million data records and 1 billion transactions per second at user’s fingertips in an intuitive dashboard for more efficient forecasting, planning, delivery and marketing.
BeWize- BeWize is a SAAS startup founded by a Police Officer and a businesswoman. BeWize combines data science, artificial intelligence and user generated ratings from law enforcement and the general public. Our special algorithm puts this information into an easy to use and accurate map that reflects the safety of areas. When you visit somewhere you are not familiar with, BeWize shows you the safety of the area down to street level. No platforms like this exist and it will change the way people explore the world. BeWize will generate revenue through mobile app subscriptions as well as through enterprise platform plugin partnerships.
GroGuru- GroGuru is all about strategic irrigation management. We help farmers make more money by increasing crop yield and more efficiently using water in a sustainable way. We have a patented wireless underground system (WUGS) for soil monitoring, an AI-based recommendation engine in the Cloud, and an intuitive farmer-friendly user interface. GroGuru sells an innovative hardware-enabled subscription-based solution to farmers that enables optimal irrigation. GroGuru’s patented WUGS technology enables a permanent installation of soil sensors, even in annual field crops. GroGuru is part of Octane LaunchPad, EvoNexus, AgLaunch, the Yield Lab, SVG-Thrive and PnP AgTech accelerator programs.
METASeismic- METAseismic is a University of California Irvine startup company with the potential to impact 30% of the world population, which is exposed to seismic risk every day. With innovative material optimized to absorb and dissipate vibrations on a large variety of fragile equipment and infrastructure, METAseismic is advancing a paradigmatic shift in seismic protection. Funded by National Science Foundation (i.e. NSF SBIR Ph I and Ph II) and Department of Energy (i.e. Cyclotron Road), METAseismic received several awards including the OC Timmy Award for Best Tech Startup, the Tech Coast Angels Most Disruptive award, and the OC Get Started Cox Business award.
Morgan Goodwin- Morgan Goodwin (MG) are creators of the market-proven Combined Trading Platform (CTP), an online Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that empowers start-ups and small businesses, who are engaged in trading physical goods within a B2B environment, to do so in a more efficient and digitally connected way than ever before.
Ocular Data Systems- U.S. employers spend $4B annually on drug testing but they still lose $140B each year to the direct cost of employee drug use. SafetyScan™ helps safety-sensitive companies reduce the risk of impaired employees in their workforce with our patented rapid eye test that uses machine vision to provide an impaired/not-impaired indication in minutes. Proven accurate in 12 scientific studies; SafetyScan is effective because impairment always shows in the eyes. Priced at $20 per employee per month on an annual SaaS contract, SafetyScan is delivering a cost-effective solution to sectors including oil & gas; manufacturing; construction; and, distribution.
Trubify-Trubify is a disruptive music technology app. By offering highest industry payouts to artists and removing barriers-to-entry, we attract top talent with large fanbases. Network effect is guaranteed because artists are incentivized to convert their established followings into Trubify users, as their income scales concurrently. The app’s features focus on fan engagement to generate revenue across the platform. As a digital concierge for the artist, the app automatically handles additional business demands, such as managing cover song licenses and royalty payments. In short, Trubify solves "starving artist syndrome."
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