Official #500STRONG announcement by Elizabeth Yin, 500 Partner and Resident Awesome Chick:
It’s that time again! Announcing our latest Mountain View cohort, Batch 19, with 44 companies.
Earlier this year, we experimented with vertical tracks to be able to provide greater value to companies, in particular, categories of interest. These tracks have allowed companies to receive additional categorical mentoring and networking opportunities. This year at 500 Startups, we’ve held specialized tracks in Health, Fintech, B2B, and Fashion & Beauty. In Batch 19, we are, again, running tracks in B2B led by Robert Neivert and Fashion & Beauty led by Tanya Soman. #MajorKey
500 Startups has always invested in a lot of B2B companies — in fact, many of our top performing companies in our portfolio, such as Intercom and Talkdesk are B2B companies. One of the biggest challenges for B2B companies — especially enterprise B2B — is sales. How to hire salespeople? How to close deals? How to negotiate proposals? This is what our B2B track focuses on so that we can help founders with a great B2B product take their traction to the next level.
500 Startups has also invested in a lot of fashion & beauty companies including Ipsy, Le Tote, TheRealReal, and Tradesy. We see a real opportunity in this space because few investors have historically understood or invested in it. But, with the rise in some of our high flying fashion & beauty companies, investors and corporates are beginning to take notice. #BlessUp In this track, we provide both growth guidance to help our companies increase their users and revenues and also help connect them with relevant larger industry players.
At 500 Startups, it’s important to us to continue to push the startup ecosystem to be more inclusive and diverse, so we actively scout great companies from everywhere. This batch was no different, and we are proud that the diversity of our founders remains strong:
- 29% of companies have at least one female founder
- 49% of companies are international
- 13% of companies have a black founder
- 9% of companies have a LatinX founder
International countries represented:
- Nigeria
- India
- Jordan
- UK
- Hong Kong
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Brazil
- Spain
- South Korea
- Taiwan
- Palestine
- Germany
- Switzerland
- Sweden
Learn more about Batch 19 below. #WeTheBest
For investors interested in attending Demo Day B19 you can register here. See ya there! And applications for Batch 20 are now open. Apply here.
Aella Credit provides instant credit solutions to Africans by eliminating standard loan applications and enabling employees to borrow at competitive rates through their employers.
Almabase makes fundraising easier for schools by helping them engage their alumni effectively.
Ambience Data provides live, accurate environmental insights worldwide to manage pollution health risks.
The first marketplace using intelligent technology to assist medical suppliers to validate and to assign reliable distributors with the least amount of time and at half of the cost, plus providing access to all medical tenders and news online.
Baloonr removes bias from group work and decision-making.
Donate spare change automatically from everyday purchases to your charity of choice.
Cardlife helps businesses to take control of their subscriptions with the vision to be the one stop shop for everything SaaS subscriptions.
ChangeJar is a mobile cash payment platform for retailers who want more transactions with higher margins.
ClaimCompass will get the airlines to pay you up to $680 for your delayed, cancelled or overbooked flight.
CloudCoffer is a plug-and-play network security device that shields businesses of any size from external and internal hacking with the most scalable and affordable network protection in minutes.
A marketplace that gives coffee drinkers access to rare coffees from small-batch roasters.
One-stop Event Management Platform for Corporate Events.
IoT device allows you to engage your phone while driving, eyes free.
Flye allows real-time engagement with customers in geo-fenced areas & provides social media analytics to brands – no hashtag needed.
Fuel delivers nutrient-customized meals tailored to your unique body, fitness and biomarker data.
B2B payments platform for retail petroleum merchants that decrease interchange cost and increase card security.
Gestoos is a computer vision software platform that enables camera (sensor) equipped devices to see and understand human gestures and movements with a level of accuracy never before available.
Gluwa is a blockchain-powered banking platform to send and receive money automatically and privately for businesses.
GymHit is a proactive business management platform for fitness businesses that is introducing a virtual manager for workflow automation for everything from automated booking to billing.
A text-based home manager and dashboard for homeowners designed to increase the quality and simplicity of home services.
Motion sensors for Boxing and MMA that recognize which punch is being thrown and at which speed it’s thrown.
iControl replaces paper with an app at construction sites, saving each construction manager time by generating all their daily reports.
IDwall is a B2B solution that builds trust by verifying documents, identity and doing background checks in a reliable and scalable way.
Like GPS does outdoors, InnerSpace’s instant mapping and location platform transforms the human experience indoors and captures the data on how people interact indoors. We’re driving a fundamental shift in the way that people experience, understand, and create their indoor spaces.
Kompyte is competitor tracking software that alerts you in real time when your competitors make changes to their websites, products and digital marketing campaigns.
Never lose your child again with Kiband, a line of child wearables that sync with your smartphone.
An online legal marketplace connecting attorneys with curated freelancers for legal jobs and project-based legal services.
Mashvisor helps real estate investors quickly find traditional and Airbnb investment properties.
Emoji Marketplace for independent designers and studios from around the world.
MyFavorito is a CRM platform for the B2C world, used by brands and retailers to increase loyalty, sales and growth.
Solving the urban housing problem through affordable communal living.
OWLR is a mobile-first platform that transforms your off-the-shelf home security cameras into a smarter, simpler and safer home monitoring system.
Park Evergreen is a B2B platform that allows companies to offer unlimited monthly parking to employees across a network of parking lots in their city.
Pawprint is an app that helps pet owners find and book quality veterinarians.
Pluto is an AI-powered analytics platform that water companies use to prevent water wastage, predict asset failures, and avoid expensive operations/maintenance costs.
RocketBolt provides easy email & website tracking to help you discover your next big sales opportunity.
An innovative platform for companies to seamlessly search, publish, and pull insights from curated social media images to increase audience engagement, while fairly compensating the original content contributors.
ShearShare connects salon owners to stylists to fill empty salon chairs.
Sickweather is the Doppler radar of sickness — allowing parents, patients, and providers to check for the chance of sickness as easily as they can check for the chance of rain.
Tagove connects sales and support teams to online customers through live video chat and co-browsing with plug and play installation.
TalentBase is a Payroll and HR software targeting growing businesses across Africa.
The first platform for truly interactive video, driving 10x more engagement by providing freely navigable video, enriched with contextual contents.
UNICORN is a stylish skincare brand for men.
Beauty Subscription Service & Digital Playground for Multicultural Millennials.
