Startups Venture

Startups To Watch: Cobble, Oula And More

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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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When it rains, it pours, and this week was a good example. We saw lots of seed rounds for some interesting startups. We couldn’t include everyone, but here is a sampling of what we saw.

Cobble

Cobble app example

When you first start dating someone, everything is fresh and new. You are learning about what the other person likes and dislikes, but sometimes you aren’t too sure what that is.

Cobble, a decision-making app, is here to help. The New York-based company, founded by Jordan Scott, raised $3 million in seed funding in 35 days. The round was led by a group of several strategic angel investors including Kerr Tech Investments.

The idea is if you meet someone via a dating app, connect and become committed, you can carry on the conversation on Cobble. It matches couples to restaurants, bars, events and now a host of at-home activities, such as cooking, shows and takeout, all with the ease of a swipe, Scott told Crunchbase News.

“We were inspired by dating apps, but once you get into dating, what happens?” she said. “We realized that couples were under-targeted and wanted content on where to go or what to eat. Cobble is there to help make those decisions.”

The company is already seeing 5 percent to 10 percent week-over-week growth. The new funding will go toward key hires in marketing and developing an Android app.

Oula

Maternal care is crucial and Brooklyn-based Oula announced this week that it is working to create a new standard of care for pregnant women.

That focus attracted a group of high-profile investors. The company raised $3.2 million in seed funding. Collaborative Fund led the investment and was joined by Female Founders Fund, 8VC, Metrodora (co-founded by Chelsea Clinton), Kapor Capital, Rock Health, January Ventures and Great Oaks, as well as Tom Lee and Kate Ryder.

The new round of funding will be used in many ways including, opening a prenatal clinic in Brooklyn Heights in early 2021, developing its collaborative care model and virtual coaching, even programming and a birth center in Manhattan, slated to open in late 2021.

Also on our radar

  • Kettle, a Berkeley-based reinsurance startup raised $4.71 million in a seed round led by True Ventures, with participation from Acrew Capital, Homebrew Ventures, Anthemis and Inspired Capital. The company is using advanced deep learning to better protect people from the growing risks associated with climate change. It’s first product is focused on the California wildfires, where Kettle used its model to predict that all 14 of the fires were in the top 20 percent of areas most likely to burn across California’s hundred-plus million acres.
  • Lemon, a São Paulo-based clean-energy startup, raised $3 million from a group of investors, including Canary, Big Bets and AB Inbev. The company facilitates the connection between energy generators and small and medium businesses in Brazil. The funding will enable Lemon to provide clean energy to more than 70,000 small stores, bars and restaurants by 2023.
  • Mira, a New York-based startup, is building a new way for people without insurance to get care. Targeting millennials who live in big cities, the company offers memberships for $25 a month for exclusive copays for health care services at clinics, testing labs and pharmacies. Mira closed on $2.7 million in total funding from a group of investors, including FlyBridge Capital Partners, Newark Venture Partners, Precursor Ventures, Plug and Play and CityLight. The funding will be used to add services, such as gym membership discounts, primary care physicians and mental health practitioners, as well as scale outside of New York.
  • HeySummit platform

    HeySummit, an Edinburgh-based platform powering virtual events, raised $1 million in seed funding. The round was led by Techstart Ventures and included Active Capital and Ankur Nagpal. HeySummit provides marketing and management tools to run a virtual event, such as landing pages, speaker management and ticketing, and then integrates with event hosting platforms. Within the past year, the company has served nearly 2 million attendees and hosted over 4,500 events on the platform.

Illustration: Dom Guzman
App photos courtesy of Cobble and HeySummit

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