Today, 500 Startups hosts their Demo Day for Batch 16 in Mountain View. The companies will be pitching their products to an audience of VCs, Angel Investors, and decision makers at large tech companies, in hopes of closing their next round of funding. We ranked this batch of 500 Startups companies and found the following 20 with the highest Mattermark Growth Score.
20 Fastest Growing 500 Startups Batch 16 Companies
- Arka offers a pain-free way for companies to source packaging/fulfillment online. Mattermark Growth Score: 588.
- iGrow.asia is a platform that connects farmers, land owners, investors and crop buyers to produce organic food. Mattermark Growth Score: 490.
- Albert provides practical financial advice that you can act on. Mattermark Growth Score: 434.
- Rapid API is a code-free backend platform for web and mobile developers. Mattermark Growth Score: 383.
- Rize automates saving through technology and behavioral science. Mattermark Growth Score: 373
- Podozi is a beauty ecommerce website for women of color in Africa. Mattermark Growth Score: 344.
- ManyChat is a platform that helps your business communicate with customers through popular messaging apps. Mattermark Growth Score: 343.
- BrewPublik is a custom-tailored craft beer delivery service. Mattermark Growth Score: 336.
- Qwil provides instant pay for independent contractors. Mattermark Growth Score: 275.
- Mentimeter is a cloud-based tool that lets users engage and interact with mobile audiences in real-time. Mattermark Growth Score: 273.
- Angel Sensor is a wearable sensor and open source platform for mobile health developers. Mattermark Growth Score: 242.
- MaestroConference is the leader in Social Conferencing™, a technology that allows people to participate in large-scale virtual events. Mattermark Growth Score: 204.
- Transtutors is an education portal offering online tutors to help users with their assignments in various subjects. Mattermark Growth Score: 202.
- nurseVersity develops adaptive learning material for nursing students. Mattermark Growth Score: 183.
- Finova Financial provides fast affordable emergency loans for those outside the formal financial system. Mattermark Growth Score: 164.
- Buildcon is a SaaS product for real-time team management and collaboration for construction projects. Mattermark Growth Score: 163.
- Resource uses proprietary software combined with expert human sourcing to find and engage the highest potential candidates, sending interested responses directly to your inbox. Mattermark Growth Score: 161.
- BottlesTonight is a mobile application for same-day bottle service booking at top nightclubs and lounges with bottles up to 70% off regular menu prices. Mattermark Growth Score: 157.
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Phenom is a mobile app for athletes to show off their style and hustle. Mattermark Growth Score: 149.
- Voyajoy is a vacation rental management platform that helps users with cleaning, marketing, and servicing guests. Mattermark Growth Score: 147.
Our Take
(Alex Wilhelm, Mattermark’s Editor in Chief)
It’s demo day for the most recent batch of companies going through the 500 Startups accelerator, which means that there are lots of new companies to parse. Yes, venture is slowing down a bit, and yes, liquidity is trash, but that doesn’t mean that people are going stop building new things.
500 is one of the better known startup shops, along with Y Combinator and the broader TechStars franchise. As such, each class of its companies comes with a long list of potentially interesting viable companies looking for hyper growth.
Nick, above, ranked the lot. I went through his list — we sit near one another at the office — and had a few thoughts. Always a gentleman, he gave me this space to weigh in. Let’s chat.
- iGrow is really cool. Farming is hard. Growing food is hard. And it is often unprofitable. This company wants to link capital and opportunity for smaller farmers. The people putting up the capital get a return, and thanks to a new tech platform economic opportunity is spread across the world. Sometimes everyone can win. Here’s a quote about the company’s performance to date, claiming that it has put “2,200 farmers to work and 1,197 hectares of land to use, delivered 350 tons of healthy peanuts, and gained revenue for the farmers, landowners, and investors.” In case people tell you that all current technology work is derivative ‘Uber for X’ iterations, here’s something that is quite to the contrary.
- Podozi is following a popular model. Podozi, which sells what it calls ‘beauty for women of color,’ is following a similar model that has proven popular for Bevel, which sells shaving products to men of color. There’s a reason why we know the name Tristan Walker, and so to see the model that he has worked on expanded is more than neat.
- Finova is slightly confusing. This company provides loans to car owners of up to $5,000, with what is claims are better terms and rates. That’s laudatory, as our financial system is too predatory towards the least well-off in our society. However, how the company will manage risk and manage to drive profit while claiming to cost 50 percent less than other loans tied to a car is an open question. If the company can provide emergency cash to people who need it at less usurious rates then I am in favor of its work, of course. We’ll have to see how the basis points balance.
Taking stock of the companies that I looked at today, what struck me the most was that a chunk of them are not aimed at Straight White Males From Stanford. Of course, Silicon Valley is always going to have its own back, but to see this many companies focused on humans that don’t fit that precise model was encouraging.
Every demo class from an incubator is annoying, because when you read through its members there is a nagging feeling that you just missed the next Dropbox. It’s always fun to back and see what you missed the last time. So do us a favor, and email in your favorite company from the batch. Worst entry gets a free drink. You can collect your prize at Mattermark HQ.
You May Wonder:
- Where are these companies located?
- How much funding do these companies have?
- What is the average headcount at these companies?
- How are these companies performing vs. similar companies?
For answers and more in-depth analysis, sign up for a free trial of Mattermark Pro.
Already have Mattermark Pro? See the complete list of companies (with graphs & charts!)
Image Credit: Roger Toor