Top Seed Companies: Pomelo, BlueTape, Highbeam, Boomy, EasyDMARC
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.
Pomelo
EVA Growth Index:
No external sources showing growth
Product:
Global remittance solution enabled by the money receiver being given a credit card that pulls directly from the sender's account
Lead Investors:
Keith Rabois, Kevin Hartz, Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, Xfund, Afore Capital, Josh Buckley
Total Raised:
$75M
Comparables:
Azimo, Remitly
My Thoughts:
This is a smart way to leverage the low barriers of issuing cards and solving for the significant problem/opportunity of global money remittance. I also like the secondary feature that when the receiving individual spends on the card, the sending account holder builds credit in the US.
BlueTape
EVA Growth Index:
No external sources showing growth
Product:
Real-time financing solutions that enable a buy-now, pay-later experience for construction operators purchasing building materials
Lead Investors:
Arcadia Funds, Chicago Ventures, Plug N Play Ventures
Total Raised:
$55M
Comparables:
CoFi
My Thoughts:
Construction companies are often very cash flow-sensitive operations, so enabling deferred payments on construction materials should be a real value add.
Highbeam
EVA Growth Index:
No external sources showing growth
Product:
Digital business bank dedicated to e-commerce businesses
Lead Investors:
Mayfield Fund, FirstMark
Total Raised:
$7M
Comparables:
Novo, Juni
My Thoughts:
I like the idea of building a banking solution for the massive e-commerce segment (1.8M online merchants in the US alone) as Highbeam is well positioned to provide dedicated financing solutions like inventory or customer acquisition financing.
Boomy
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
AI-enabled music creation engine
Lead Investors:
Sound Media Ventures
Total Raised:
Undisclosed
Comparables:
Soundraw, AIVA
My Thoughts:
As music has become synonymous with modern social media content, I see a huge opportunity in Boomy to become the go-to tool for creators to enrich their content in a music style that becomes synonymous with their brand.
EasyDMARC
EVA Growth Index:
Product:
Cybersecurity solution to stop third parties from sending malicious email from your domain
Lead Investors:
Acrobator Ventures
Total Raised:
$2.3M
Comparables:
Dmarcian
My Thoughts:
Phishing is the number one way that modern organizations get compromised, and one of the most successful phishing techniques is emails sent from one’s own or a trusted company’s domain. Consequently, a solution like EasyDmarc should be top of mind for any digital-first organization.
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.
