Ontop, Genba, Gameboard, Quix, Salted — May 17th, 2021
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.
For anyone who might have missed last week, e.ventures is now Headline. Nevertheless, this newsletter will keep going as I love making it, so let’s get into it!
Ontop
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Automated global hiring and payroll management software
Lead Investors:
Point72 Ventures
Total Raised:
$6M
Comparables:
Remote, Panther
My Thoughts:
I am super bullish on the globalization of the workforce, driven by the joy the experienced CEOs from our portfolio are getting from how much easier it is to hire top talent when not restricted to a single geo.
Genba
EVA Growth Index:
No external sources showing growth
Product:
Application that allows frontline industrial workforces to complete workflows and data entries via a voice interface
Lead Investors:
Fortive
Total Raised:
Undisclosed
Comparables:
Datch
My Thoughts:
No floor or factory worker should ever stop and pick up a screen to enter data manually. With where voice interfaces have come, this is a no-brainer to revolutionize industrial workflows.
Gameboard
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Touchscreen board game console that interacts with physical objects
Lead Investors:
TheVentureCity Fund
Total Raised:
$4M
Comparables:
N/A
My Thoughts:
I think everyone enjoys sitting around a table and playing a board game, which Gameboard takes to the 21st century. If they manage to become the device of choice, I love their ability to own the app store and earn a high-margin take-rate within it.
Quix
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Data engineering platform architected to simplify the lift to work with data streams
Lead Investors:
Project A Ventures
Total Raised:
$3.23M
Comparables:
Confluent
My Thoughts:
The most actionable data comes in terms of streams, not static events, as one uncovers trends in real-time. Nevertheless, working with data streams is still overly complicated so simplifying this looks to be a massive opportunity.
Salted
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Ghostkitchen provider with a focus on spinning up affordable health-food brands
Lead Investors:
Kamine Development Corporation
Total Raised:
$14M
Comparables:
CloudKitchen
My Thoughts:
I am like 90% a complete health fanatic with the main reason for me not using food delivery marketplaces is that basically all food on the platforms not being as healthy as what I‘d like it to be— and that is in San Francisco. I think there is a real market gap and tailwinds towards healthy living, with affordability being a driver to drastically expand the market here. I’d love to see this succeed!
See last week’s Seeds to watch in the link below:
Hi, I am Nicolas von Blottnitz, an Associate at Headline’s SF office focusing on Consumer, Fintech, and SaaS business. Since joining the firm in 2018, I have led our investments in Tabnine, Polygon, Flockjay, Solid, 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.
