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Startups to Watch: Transformative, Epic CleanTec, dataPlor, Wingocard

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Crunchbase News typically covers larger funding rounds, however we think these startups are worth highlighting for their interesting approaches despite their smaller raises.

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Transformative

Predicting when a medical event, such as sudden cardiac arrest, might happen to a hospitalized patient can help doctors and nurses provide better treatment. To address that issue, Transformative, a London-based medical device software company, is developing technology that will analyze data from patient monitoring devices.

The company raised a $1.7 million seed round led by Tera Ventures, with participation from Wellcome Trust and InHealth Ventures.

Transformative’s patient view

“Our next focus is to take the algorithm that we developed, that is validated, and get it to patients,” Joshua Oppenheimer, M.D., co-founder and CEO, told me in an interview. “We want to accomplish giving that early warning or, at the very least, at the early stage for survival.”

The path to market for the company is through manufacturers for the devices that are already standard in hospitals. Oppenheimer expects to then expand to out-of-hospital monitoring at home.

Epic CleanTec

Most people don’t typically think about where their toilet water goes, but Epic CleanTec does.

The San Francisco-based company secured a $2.6 million round of seed funding this week to advance its approach to onsite wastewater treatment and reuse: Converting a building’s wastewater into natural, carbon-rich soil amendments and water that can be purified and reused onsite for nonpotable applications.

Epic CleanTec’s NEMA install image

The round was led by a mostly undisclosed group of investors that included Elizabeth Cutler and Kathy Fields. The company tested its method at Stanford University before installation in the NEMA apartment complex in downtown San Francisco.

“This funding will help Epic become the market leader in onsite water reuse in cities throughout the US and eventually the world,” Epic’s co-founder and CEO Aaron Tartakovsky told me via email. “We will hire additional experts to expand our business and technical teams and accelerate our efforts to provide clean water and reliable sanitation to growing urban populations everywhere.”

dataPlor

Many businesses use location data to gain valuable insights on consumer interests and preferences. Enterprise businesses also use that same information to identify smaller businesses in a community for sales and marketing and data teams.

Los Angeles-based dataPlor raised a $4 million investment round, from Space Capital, Quest Venture Partners and FF Venture Capital, to expand into Brazil, Chile, Peru, Argentina and Colombia by the end of this year.

“We are thrilled to have partnered with rockstar investors who believe in our vision and mission,” Geoffrey Michener, CEO of dataPlor, said via email. “We are using this capital to expand into more Latin American countries and build out our sales, marketing, and tech teams. We are investing in AI/ML and mobile applications to help us capture, verify, and refresh tens of millions of small businesses on a weekly basis.”

Wingocard

As the mom of two teenagers, I am trying to educate them on keeping track of their money and how they spend it. Here to help parents like me is Wingocard, developer of a personal financial app designed for teenagers to bank and strengthen their financial literacy skills.

The Montreal-based startup closed a $2 million seed round led by Diagram.

“We are super excited to have closed this round with Diagram,” Sebastien Brault, CEO of Wingocard, said via email. “This allows us to build our core team to develop and launch our teen banking app to the North American market.”

Wingocard app

Users can receive  money from their parents, pay with a phone or VISA debit card, keep track of spending and earn money and rewards for completing tasks, while the financial literacy tools include lessons on budgeting, saving money, and tracking earnings, spending and financial terms.

The app won’t launch until the fall, but the company said it already has 50,000 new users on the waiting list.

 

Company photos courtesy of Transformative, Epic CleanTec and Wingocard
Feature and blogroll illustrations: Dom Guzman

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