Top Seed Companies to Track: KYX, Knapsack, Faros, MyPlace, Snipt
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.
KYX
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Consumer subscription to rent premium sneakers starting at $59 per month
Lead Investors:
SeventySix Capital
Total Raised:
$5M
Comparables:
StockX, Goat
My Thoughts:
A consumer gets access to a bigger collection of sneakers he/she ever could ever own for a monthly flat rate price — genius.
Knapsack
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Design system software for product teams to design, code, and manage content in one central interface
Lead Investors:
Shawn Merani, Crosslink Capital, Gradient Ventures
Total Raised:
$8M
Comparables:
Rangle, InVision, Monday
My Thoughts:
Building good products is the foundation of any prospering business so any tool that enables and amplifies this should be top of mind to any organization.
Faros
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Software platform that connects the dots within the data sources of an engineering organization to give management unprecedented insights into their workflows and productivity
Lead Investors:
SignalFire, Salesforce Ventures, Global Founders Capital
Total Raised:
$16M
Comparables:
Plato, SourceLevel, Linear
My Thoughts:
To date, it has been incredibly tough for management to get deep insights into how their engineering team operates which drives the need for a platform like Faros. I see the biggest challenge here is to get the buy-in from the individual engineers, but if Faros gets this right, the value unlock could be massive.
MyPlace
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Online platform that allows homeowners to share their homes with their friends and their friends of friends
Lead Investors:
Freestyle
Total Raised:
$6M
Comparables:
Pacaso, Airbnb
My Thoughts:
The unlock I see for this model is that the moment we have a relationship with the owner of an asset we automatically respect the asset more as our social reputation is on the line. The naturally viral nature of this platform and the ability to build network effects as a moat should enable it to go from zero to one in no time.
Snipd
EVA Growth Index:
No external sources showing growth
Product:
Productivity tool that lets listeners turn podcasts into editable transcripts and summaries to distill the most important moments in real-time
Lead Investors:
Undisclosed
Total Raised:
Undisclosed
Comparables:
Trint, Otter AI
My Thoughts:
There is soo much knowledge locked in the audio files of podcasts and the ability for Snipd to liberate this in a more workable sharable manner looks to be incredibly valuable.
Hi, 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 Trellis, Solid, Polygon, Flockjay, and Grin.
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.
