2019 highlights — it’s been quite a year
At the Data, Digital, and Veterans Future Labs, $50M+ raised by our startups past and present, the launch of our ProtoShop makerspace, the very first Veterans Future Lab Summit, an entrepreneurship program at Rikers Island, and more
The end of the decade draws near, and here at the Data, Digital, and Veterans Future Labs, we’re incredibly grateful about the last year of the twenty-tens. We launched a new space (the ProtoShop makerspace at Industry City), we moved into a new space (370 Jay Street, recently mentioned in the Architect’s Newspaper Best Design awards), we gave veterans around the country a free space in New York, with housing at Fort Hamilton offered to some in our Apex program. We gathered experts to explore the future of work (the first of our Great AI Debates) and bias in AI (with Capgemini’s Applied Innovation Exchange). Alongside Orrick and Two Sigma Ventures, we hosted the second edition of our sold-out Mock Term Sheet Negotiation.
TL;DR: Our 10th year, thanks to our incredible startups, supporters, and partners, was a good one.
Programs & Events
Data, Digital and Urban Future Labs moved to 370 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, bringing 3 of the 4 Future Labs under one roof and closer to the NYU Tandon community and resources.
For hardware entrepreneurs in New York, we launched the Future Labs ProtoShop, capable of machining, woodworking, metal fabrication, softgoods, and everything in between.
We held our first Veterans Entrepreneurship Training (VET) program for the Rikers Island veterans’ unit.
The Veterans Future Lab Apex program went national with the offer of free housing for qualifying founders.
The inaugural Veterans Future Lab Summit — featuring panels on investing in veteran companies and building successful startups, and a keynote by Todd Connor (CEO, Bunker Labs) — was a success.
We held our first Veterans Entrepreneurship Training (VET) program exclusively for Military Spouses, condensed and timed to fit their schedules.
The NYU Tandon Future Labs celebrated our 10th year in operation with an anniversary bash, where we honored some of our earliest supporters.
We’ve had two semesters of fantastic NYU Tandon undergraduates who work with our startups for academic credit, getting ground-up info on building the companies of the future.
Raises
Augmented intelligence startup Pryon in Next Round raised a $20M Series A, led by Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Breyer Capital, Greycroft, and Digital Alpha Advisors.
Next Round graduate Staffbase (employee communications platform) raised $23M in Series C led by Insight Partners in participation with e.ventures, Capnamic, and KIZOO.
Digital kiosk company Vengo (ex Next Round) raised $7M led by Arcade Beauty, the largest manufacturer of beauty samples in the world.
Real estate securities platform LEX Markets (graduate of CatalystNYC and Next Round) raised $4M in seed led by Greycroft and Thor Equities. A WSJ profile covered upcoming plans, including their lineup of “more than $1 billion in future deals for bite-size stakes in properties.”
Next Round’s fintech startup Harvest, whose AI identifies negotiable bank fees and gets refunds, raised a $3.1M seed round, with investors including Lakehouse Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Barclays Accelerator, and Hustle Fund.
Intelligent SaaS platform Intello (Next Round graduate) raised $2.5M in an extended seed round led by Resolute Ventures.
Skopos Labs, ex Catalyst NYC and now in our Next Round, raised $2.5M in seed.
Medivis, the surgical visualization company led by Dr. Christopher Morley (former Resident at NYU Langone) and Dr. Osamah Choudhry (current Resident at NYU Langone) in Next Round, closed $2.3M in funding for its SurgicalAR software.
Acquisitions
Bowtie.ai, an AI receptionist and AI NexusLab/Next Round alum, was acquired by leading wellness platform MindBody.
Workforce management platform and Next Round graduate Lighthouse was acquired by TEAM Software.
Next Round grad WeDidIt — the fundraising-for-nonprofits startup was acquired by Allegiance Fundraising Group.
Keen Home, the smart HVAC zoning startup, was acquired by ConnectM Technology Solutions, Inc.
The Digital Future Lab’s first ever graduate, Tendigi, was acquired by Work & Co, which will enable Work & Co. to enhance its native app development offering for clients.
Next Round’s frictionless retail pioneer DeepMagic was acquired by Standard Cognition.
Accolades
Pryon was on CNBC’s Upstart 100 list of startups that “have quickly become entrepreneurial success stories worth keeping an eye on.”
Medivis was covered in Wired magazine’s ‘Hey Surgeon, Is That a HoloLens on Your Head?’ Dr. Morley also gave a keynote at CES 2019, on how AR and 5G will change healthcare.
Behavioral marketing platform BounceX (Next Round graduate) was named one of the top 100 breakout tech startups driving innovation in fashion and retail by The Lead, a 2019 Great Place to Work, and one of Next Round alum CBInsights’ AI 100 roundup.
Fortune named data-driven hiring marketplace Vettery (Next Round graduate) one of the best places to work in New York.
Cloud-based access control company and Next Round graduate KISI was on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies in the US for the second year running.
Catalyst NYC alum Cherry Pick landed on WWD’s Beauty Inc. cover for their visionary AI-driven social media analysis revealing consumer demand for beauty products.
Next Round graduate Open Sponsorship’s CEO Ishveen Anand was on Inc’s 2019 Female Founders 100: The 100 Women Building America’s Most Innovative & Ambitious Businesses.
Next Round graduate and edtech company Kinvolved swept across B Corporation’s 2019 Best For The World lists, in customers, governance, and change-makers.
CB Insights made the @Deloitte #Fast500 of fastest growing private & public companies.
Partnerships
Financial management and aid platform for students Edquity (CatalystNYC) announced a partnership with the DCCCD Foundation to offer emergency grants. Cofounder David Helene is on Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs.
Findmine partnered with Adidas to create Complete The Look outfits on the Adidas platform. Adidas saw a 95% decrease in the time spent putting together the outfits (which, manually done, would take 20 minutes per outfit!), and a 960% increase in items featured.
Next Round’s street intelligence startup Carmera partnered with auto parts supplier Lear and Baidu’s Apollo platform.
Catalyst NYC’s Edquity partnered with the ECMC Foundation, and the foundation’s investment will further Edquity’s mission to make college financial planning more accessible.
Video marketplace Stringr teamed up with TVU Networks to provide access to its live-streaming function through the TVU Global Grid, and with Reuters to give Reuters Connect customers access to their content.
Launches & Expansions
Medivis (in Next Round) got FDA approval for its SurgicalAR surgical planning toolkit and launched teaching tool AnatomyX for HoloLens and Magic Leap One. Then, following an ad campaign on their Verizon partnership (featured everywhere from the NBA Finals to the New York Times), they made an appearance on Good Morning America.
Video marketplace Stringr (ex Next Round) launched its live-streaming function, allowing customers to request live video content nationwide, and expanded to the UK market.
TRASH (ex Catalyst NYC), the next-gen video company, launched its public beta app.
Bits of Stock (Veterans Future Lab), offering rewards in the form of fractional ownership in global brands, launched in the Apple store.
Eureka (speedy team onboarding platform at the Veterans Future Lab) launched in beta.
Clean energy co. Social Solar at the Veterans Future Lab launched in beta.
Black 6 Coffee (Veterans Future Lab) powered Black 6 Project’s mission to Mindoro in the Philippines and Marsh Harbor.
Cloud computing company and Next Round grad Paperspace launched a new set of tools allowing data scientists to smoothly pass their ML models to devs in a multi-cloud or hybrid environment. They also released a free cloud GPU service for machine/deep learning development.
These were just some of the goings-on in the networks of the Data, Digital, and Veterans Future Labs, and we’re looking forward to 2020 being another top-notch year. If you’d like to apply for our programs, we’re currently accepting applications to:
(1) Next Round (Data Future Lab), for seed to Series A startups looking to raise their next round in 12–24 months; and
(2) Apex (Veterans Future Lab), our one-year program for pre-seed companies led by military veterans, DoD affiliates, or their spouses. For those applying from out of the Tri-State area, free housing might be available.
And if you want to keep in touch and up to date, sign up for our monthly newsletter here or email us at hello@futurelabs.nyc.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Stringr partnered with TV Technology. Stringr partnered with TVU Networks to provide their users access to Stringr’s video content, the ability to request custom footage, and access its live-streaming function through TVU Networks’ TVU Global Grid.
Compiled by Annie Brinich (anniebrinich@nyu.edu)
