TurnSignl provides 24/7 year-round access to access to legal guidance from attorneys who are experts at keeping drivers safe and protected. Attorneys are trained to de-escalate potentially volatile encounters and advocate for users’ civil rights during traffic stops, car accidents, and other roadside interactions.
GLOW is a platform that allows users and groups to book hairstyling, makeup, and spray-tan services with vetted beauty professionals currently in Birmingham, Atlanta, and Nashville. The platform helps to make accessing beauty services more convenient, personal, and less time consuming for users while providing professionals with autonomy, business tools, and client flow.
Brevity is founded and led by Kelvin Johnson, a Minneapolis-based founder that took his years of experience in coaching new entrepreneurs and turned it into an opportunity to help millions of founders. Brevity Pitch’s AI software reads through a founder’s pitch content and then provides an analysis aimed to make the script as concise, meaningful, and impactful as possible. Currently, Brevity has the Knight Foundation as a client and will continue to expand through partnerships with entrepreneurship support organizations across the US.
Cyber Pop-up is an on-demand cybersecurity service platform that connects businesses with skilled cyber security experts that need cyber security services. Cyber Pop-up makes cybersecurity accessible to businesses of all sizes. Through an on-demand platform powered by vetted and highly skilled freelance cyber experts, customers get a white glove cyber support experience that is flexible, trustworthy, and affordable.
GRIND is a Houston-based startup that offers an affordable, lightweight portable shooting machine for amateur basketball players. The startup is led by Thomas Fields, a former basketball player that confronted his personal issue of wanting to efficiently practice at home with an innovative solution that’s now available globally. The GRIND machine’s presence in the market now gives many more amateur players access to improving their on-court performance.
Lillii RNB is an emerging leader in ecommerce returns management. Since 2013, under the leadership of founder and CEO Barbara Jones, the Atlanta-based firm helps clients increase revenue while improving customers’ retail experience. Lillii RNB’s products deliver solutions to a growing roster of clients that includes Fortune 500 companies, leading global retailers, and government agencies. Lillii RNB is a Woman Veteran Owned Small Business (WVOSB) and is recognized as one of the top System Integrators in the retail industry.
Launched in 2020, wildwonder is a health beverage brand based in the San Francisco Bay area. The startup has grown by building its national retail-based market to more than 500 outlets — including Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Amazon — while continuing to expand direct-to-consumer sales. Inspired by herbal tonics brewed by the grandmother of founder Rosa Li, wildwonder combines probiotics, prebiotics, and functional herbs with all-natural fruit in drinks that promote gut health and boost immunity.
Upkey is a Chicago-based startup that offers students free online career readiness tools. It has an arsenal of free professional development navigation tools that provide students with individualized, self-paced support. These tools include resumé-building, pitch development and interview prep, as well as virtual classes and internships with leading universities and companies. Previously, these resources were available only to students in elite educational institutions.
Acclinate integrates culture and technology to educate and engage diverse individuals so they can make informed decisions about genomic research and clinical trial participation. With a platform that protects privacy, Acclinate utilizes machine learning and predictive analytics to ensure selection of more diverse participants. The company has formed partnerships with an academic institution/clinical trial organization customer, while recruiting hundreds of users nationwide.
Achieving the convergence of need and opportunity is the essential idea behind Smart Alto, an artificial intelligence company that utilizes a text messaging robot to help agents generate and respond to customer leads. To optimize agents’ time, prospective clients converse first with the Smart Alto robot, which asks questions to qualify them before booking an appointment with the agent. Agents function in a highly competitive environment and Smart Alto helps them close more deals and make more money.
PeopleJoy helps employers attract and retain employees by offering solutions that benefit employees through debt reduction strategies. PeopleJoy’s objective is promoting financial wellness with proprietary software that helps users identify savings and implement plans for managing their debt. The company has a special focus on eliminating student loan debt, which currently affects more than 44 million borrowers in the United States who owe a collective $1.6 trillion. Based on the number of prospective users it has identified, PeopleJoy is pursuing a target market totaling $3 billion.
Joonko is a peer-to-peer recruiting network that assists businesses with diversity hiring. The company has built a strong client base on its free platform, with more than 70 active customers, including Nike and PayPal. The company is moving to convert existing clients and attract new ones to its paid platforms and has entered an agreement with Kapor Capital to market Joonko to VC firms and their portfolio companies. Joonko’s strategy is to gain a competitive position in addressing an issue that currently costs U.S. companies $70 billion annually.
Employee Cycle provides a web-based analytics dashboard that empowers human resources teams to leverage their data to make smarter and faster decisions. Founders Bruce Marable and Salas Saraiya bring extensive expertise in the HR data industry to the challenges of breaking into a $1.2 billion market. While continuing to expand, that market currently is underserved, providing opportunities for innovation that Employee Cycle is striving to leverage.
The founding vision of Fledging is to make premium electronics accessible for every consumer, delivering best-in-class hardware at affordable prices. The founders’ background in engineering and computer science has helped Fledging develop products that are consistently faster and cheaper than those of major competitors such as Samsung, OWC and Razer. With an aggressive product development plan and a clear understanding of a growing global market, the company is positioned for rapid expansion.
Mixtroz was founded in 2014 by the mother-daughter team of CEO Kerry Schrader and President Ashlee Ammons. The company relocated from Nashville to Birmingham, in part because of an investment by Bronze Valley. In 2018, the company won $100,000 in Birmingham’s Rise of the Rest pitch competition, sponsored by America Online founder Steve Case and author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance. Recently, Schrader and Ammons became the 37th and 38th African-American women to top $1 million in venture funding.
