Top Seed Companies to Track This Week: Bounce, LiveFlow, Lapse, GoodTrust, Numeral
Our Investor Nicolas Von Blottnitz shares the top seeded companies to keep an eye on this week.
We see about 5,000 startups each week, and I want to give you a glimpse into how we at Headline think about trending tech companies and tracking new investment opportunities. In this post, I’m highlighting top tech companies that have announced or raised a seed round within the past week.
Happy New Year, everyone. To start this week I wanted to share an important and inspiring story that Fortune wrote about our Headline family member Lauren Lyon where she opens up about what it means to be pregnant in the modern workforce even if it ends in a miscarriage. It’s a very eye-opening read.
Now to the most exciting companies that announced a Seed round since Christmas.
Bounce
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Online discovery marketplace connecting travelers luggage storage in cities across the world
Lead Investors:
General Catalyst
Total Raised:
$3M
Comparables:
Stasher, Nannybag
My Thoughts:
You need to check out of your Airbnb at 11 am but your flight is only at 9 pm, so where do you put your bags to have a productive/enjoyable rest of your day, Bounce. I see network liquidity as especially crucial for this one, as having close/strategic drop-off points will be key for customer delight and therefore also act as a long-term moat digger.
Liveflow
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Integration platform that automatically pipes finance data from Quickbooks, Xero, Stripe, etc, into Google Sheets
Lead Investors:
Moonfire Ventures
Total Raised:
$4M
Comparables:
Vertical Zapier for accounting/finance software
My Thoughts:
This may seem like a feature at first sight (so did Zapier) but the ability to frictionless update models without needing to parse data into them every week or month will enable workflows that prior to LiveFlow were not ever possible, especially if you enable a GSheet to write back into the accounting system itself. Maybe it is because I deal with this pain point on a weekly basis that this seems so compelling to me.
Lapse
EVA Growth Index:
No external sources showing growth
Product:
Consumer app that turns the mobile camera into a 36 shots, no review, no edit, and no selfie camera that creates an album that can only be shared with invite-only friends
Lead Investors:
GV, Octopus Ventures
Total Raised:
$12M
Comparables:
Instagram, Snapchat
My Thoughts:
NFTs have proven how compelling digital scarcity is to consumers. Lapse takes this with a more social twist by enabling a group to share experiences in an exclusive setting that should drive a more engaged/special media viewing experience than traditional social photo-sharing networks.
GoodTrust
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
End-to-end platform for individuals to manage their will, online accounts (social media, banking, etc), personal documents, or future messages for their eventual passing event.
Lead Investors:
Khosla Ventures, Bling Capital, Synetro Group, Azure Capital Partners
Total Raised:
$7M
Comparables:
Clocr, Trust & Will
My Thoughts:
Most of our actually important belongings are digital today (photos, money, ownership documents), so it only makes sense to manage all of this in a digital setting as well. The piece I like for this platform is that it is something you set up once, and probably never churn from your entire life, because why should you if it works. I also really like how MyGoodTrust positions itself as a “digital legacy platform” — smart product positioning!
Numeral
EVA Growth Index:
No external sources showing growth
Product:
Fintech platform that integrates into the various banking APIs to enable trustworthy bank to bank transfers
Lead Investors:
Balderton Capital
Total Raised:
$15M
Comparables:
Modern Treasury
My Thoughts:
SEPA is an incredibly competitive payment network that should be able to completely disrupt VISA and Mastercard if adopted properly by businesses. Transactions are free for end-users and they take 24 hours to clear, why do VISA and Mastercard still need their 2–3% cut?! The tools to properly adopt it are still limited and Numeral looks to be a key building block to drive this disruption forward. Strong sign that both Spendesk and Swile (Headline portfolio company) are using them.
I am Nicolas von Blottnitz, an Associate at Headline’s SF office focusing on Consumer, Fintech, and SaaS businesses. Since joining in 2018, I have led our investments in Grin, Trellis, Solid, Polygon, Flockjay, and Tabnine.
What is the EVA Growth Index?
The EVA Growth index is a composite of third-party data sources around a company’s website traffic. The vertical green lines in the charts represent a point in time where the company raised outside capital.
