Feb 22
Top Seed Companies to Track: Altis, Haul, Flatfee, Goldcast, Encore
Our Investor Nicolas von Blottnitz shares the top seeded companies to keep an eye on this week.
We see about 5,000 startups each week, and I want to give you a glimpse into how we at Headline think about trending tech companies and tracking new investment opportunities. In this post, I’m highlighting top tech companies that have announced or raised a seed round within the past week.
Altis
EVA Growth Index:
No external sources showing growth
Product:
Console that measures the movements of a human to provide live fitness programs in the comfort of a consumer’s home
Lead Investors:
PentaLab
Total Raised:
$6.7MM
Comparables:
Xbox Kinnect for fitness
My Thoughts:
There has been a massive shift to at-home and connected fitness given that most people didn’t actually like going to the gym. I really like the flexibility of different categories of workouts that Altis can enable, as it’s not just one piece of equipment that enables only x-amount of different exercises/body movements. The ability to build a marketplace of live trainers around this is also more natural here than for other incumbents in my eyes.
Haul
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Online marketplace connecting truck drivers with on-demand jobs
Lead Investors:
B Capital Group, RPM Ventures
Total Raised:
$13M
Comparables:
Uber, Doft
My Thoughts:
I believe that transparency and liquidity ultimately create better markets for everyone involved. We at Headline learned over a decade ago how relationship-based the trucking industry is, so this might be challenging to pull off, but if they do, the opportunity is massive.
Flatfee
EVA Growth Index:
No external sources showing growth
Product:
Managed marketplace for organizations to find and recruit back office services on the international stage
Lead Investors:
Bixin Ventures
Total Raised:
$1M
Comparables:
Remote.com, Deel
My Thoughts:
If you have been following this newsletter/blog, you know that I am incredibly bullish on remote work. We at Headline hear from all our stakeholders what a challenge managing your international team still is, and running payroll is really just the tip of the iceberg.
Goldcast
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Goldcast helps B2B marketers run more engaging events that drive revenue
Lead Investors:
HubSpot Ventures, Unusual Ventures
Total Raised:
$10M
Comparables:
Hopin, Hubilo
My Thoughts:
The majority of events and participants are really just for marketing and PR purposes, so building a digital event platform with the marketer in mind, makes total sense to me. I hope they did not sign too much of their soul over to HubSpot in this round of financing though.
Encore
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Mobile-only interactive live music app
Lead Investors:
Battery Ventures
Total Raised:
$11M
Comparables:
TikTok meets Instagram Live
My Thoughts:
This product looks incredibly well done and very timely given the recent dynamics in social and live streaming.
Hi, I am Nicolas von Blottnitz, an Associate at Headline’s SF office focusing on Consumer, Fintech, and SaaS businesses. Since joining in 2018, I have led our investments in Tabnine, Polygon, Flockjay, Solid, and Grin.
What is the EVA Growth Index?
The EVA Growth index is a composite of third-party data sources around a company’s website traffic. The vertical green lines in the charts represent a point in time where the company raised outside capital.
