18 St. Louis Startups Making Waves at the STL Startup Roadshow

Could these St. Louis startups make the region into the next midwestern hub for entrepreneurship? As St. Louis’ innovation community grows, it seems all the more possible. 

For most folks, the word “startup” will conjure up images of a scrappy, young entrepreneur in a well-known city or region — think New York or Silicon Valley. These areas have the notoriety, the infrastructure and the networks entrepreneurs require to put their dreams into action.

You might be surprised to learn, though, that the good old “flyover states” actually host some of the best cities for launching and nurturing startups.

And with its organizations dedicated to entrepreneurship, funding opportunities startups and portfolio of prolific companies (Square and Lockerdome, anyone?), St. Louis, Missouri is one that distinguishes itself.

Scopio pitched its ideas with 18 other startups on Wednesday for STL Startup Roadshow‘s kick-off party. Accelerate St. Louis hosts the event, which paves the path for notable St. Louis startups to pitch their ideas to crows in New York, Chicago and at TechCrunch’s Disrupt SF conference. Check them out below.

 

St. Louis Startups That Are Changing the Game

MathBRIX 

 

 

It’s no secret that US schools have less-than-stellar math scores. In fact, a mere 40% of fourth-grade students in America achieve a “proficient” score or above on their math tests, and scores definitely don’t improve with age. A third of 8th graders and a quarter of high-school seniors earned the same scores on these standardized tests.

MathBRIX is trying to shift this by starting kids out early, and their visual math games and analytics helps students ages 4-8 master critical reasoning and problem-solving skills. As students improve, the game tailors the experience to provide “the right level challenge for each little mind.”

According to Bettie Schwartz, CEO, “MathBRIX activities incorporate virtual toy building bricks that kids move with a finger across the screen. In so doing, they see the ’cause and effect’ of their actions and understand math concepts many would think are beyond their comprehension.”

Ilerasoft

 

Just like the recalls on food and cars, there are also recalls on medical equipment. Ilerasoft‘s platform helps notify hospitals about these FDA and manufacturer recalls in real-time.

Besides this life-saving technology, hospitals can also use Ilerasoft to track, reserve and monitor assets or share certain types of medical equipment, according to Arch Grants.

BotDoc

 

As the “secure “FedEx” of internet data,” BotDoc is your winning solution for sending your most important documents out virtually. Right now, they view this exchange as a child’s seesaw: As security increases, convenience decreases, and vice versa. Instead, BotDoc aims for the highest levels of both security and convenience, which breaks this seesaw in half.

This alternative is not just convenient and safe, but affordable, too. It’s also developer-friendly: BotDoc offers a micro-service API that allows them to customize their experience.

Key Please

 

 

Let’s put on our landlord hat for a minute. Since you and your potential tenants are all on different schedules, it’s painful to schedule times to show and lease your vacant properties. And sometimes, these folks won’t even show up to the appointments you went back and forth on. This doesn’t even take into account the gas you’ll waste on your drives.

You have a life, too. So what’s a smart landlord to do? Work with Keybot, of course! Install the lock on your door and the app on your phone, and Keybot adds your listing to different websites. When a potential tenant is interested, Keybot verifies their identity for a one-time access to the property. After viewing, they can negotiate the lease and other terms from their smartphone. And when all is approved by the landlord, Keybot will also dig up a background and credit check.

Astral AR

 

Astral AR‘s mission is to save lives with emerging technologies. And when you first learn about this startup’s line of drones, you might mistake them for something out of a SciFi novel.

“We use devices capable of distinguishing mental commands and individual words with real-time holographic rendering of a drone’s visual feeds,” they write on their website. “We also build unmanned vehicles that integrate biometrics and holographic displays into a patent-pending, neuromechanical interface that works exactly like you think it should.” If you’re thinking that means mind-controlled drones, you’re right on par.

In time, Astral AR hopes that their drones can be used for anything from fire rescue to traffic stops.

Aisle411

 

 

Ready to plug the brick-and-mortar world of retail into your smartphone? If so, you might just want to shop at one of the 14,000 retail stores that use Aisle411.

Their technology guides consumers to the products they’re looking for on a shopping trip. Besides this, they’ll also have access to a variety of coupons based on context and location, and stores receive valuable data on shoppers’ experiences.

Painless 1099

 

 

If you’re self-employed or managing independent contractors, you probably dread tax season more than the next person.

Painless 1099 helps independent contractors save up for taxes by managing their quarterly taxes, benefits or other requirements. Their clients also have access to information used for filling out compliance and 1099 forms.

Trust Stamp

 

This isn’t the only St. Louis startup on the list that’s focused on security— it’s one of many breaking ground in that niche.

Trust Stamp is rigorous identity verification for everyone. Using a selfie, social media profiles, e-commerce sites and public records, they create a color-coded trust score you can use to show that you’re as real as you say you are.

Trust Stamp also uses facial biometrics powered by artificial intelligence and anti-spoofing techniques to prove identity, and the entire process is complete within two minutes.

Plastomics

 

Plastomics is just one example of a startup adding to St. Louis’ vibrant ag-tech community.

With issues like insect resistance and herbicide-tolerant weeds, the world’s food supply is in uncharted territory. Plastomics hopes to solve many key challenges facing agriculture and create “the next generation of high-performing crops” using genetic engineering of chloroplasts. They are the world’s only company in this niche.

Bandura Systems

 

 

As the world plugs in and the internet shifts, security risks increase. That’s where Bandura Systems — a cyber security startup — steps in.

Bandura piloted and patented successful security technologies such as the PoliWall (which was developed with the Department of Defense), BanduraONE and PoliCloud, and has experience working with partners in many different industries, from energy to education.

Assembly Payments

 

As the world looks to the internet for more products and services, better payment solutions are needed.

Assembly Payments‘ services help you “accept, manage and disburse payments in any way imaginable,” and touts itself as the world’s most flexible payments platform. With easier payments, they say, you can turn a frustrating customer experience into a brilliant one.

Reblaze

 

 

With DDoS attacks and other security breaches becoming increasingly common, traditional web security strategies have become less effective.

Reblaze provides comprehensive, cloud-based, intelligent web security. It includes DDoS protection, WAF, IPS, bot detection and anti-scraping solutions and more.

The platform leverages the power of the global cloud to defeat attackers, automatically blocking hostile traffic before it can reach the protected network. Bandwidth and other resources scale automatically as needed.

Reblaze is a pioneer in next-generation threat detection and mitigation, such as advanced bot detection algorithms, holistic behavior analysis, intelligent user profiling and more. Machine learning is built into the platform so that it learns, adjusts and adapts to the ever-changing Internet threat environment automatically. Even as new web threats arise, Reblaze remains effective.

SensrTrx

 

 

Manufacturing and industry need better applications for their data, too! With SensrTrx, folks in these industries can make sense of actionable manufacturing data. And among other benefits, SensrTrx’s smart data assists in cutting costs, boosting OEE and reducing overtime.

Traaqr

 

 

Spending on digital ads and calls to businesses from smartphones are skyrocketing, with 162 billion search driven smartphone calls to businesses globally by 2019 and a whopping $300 billion in digital ad spending by 2021. However, it’s hard for businesses to track most of these offline conversions.

Traaqr aims to bridge this gap with the “first fully automated platform to connect online advertising to the offline conversions they drive,” enhancing every customer’s experience and helping brands collect and make sense of this immensely valuable data. Through Traaqr’s Artificial Intelligence and integrations with CRM, web analytics and advertising services, advertisers can optimize return on investment across all of their digital advertising channels.

AppsCo

 

All set at Mobile World Congress! Visit us in hall 6, stand 6H20 or contact [email protected] to schedule a meeting. #mwc17 #appsco #IDaaS #SSO #startup

Posted by AppsCo on Monday, February 27, 2017

 

Companies use a lot of applications in their day-to-day business. That’s surely a given. But without proper control over these platforms, managing users and sensitive data flow within them can take a good amount of time.

AppsCo provides a way to manage all of these resources in one place. For enterprises, this lowers “operational burden.” And for employees, access to applications is easier.

CogniCor

 

 

Want to automate product queries, lead generation, onboarding and servicing? CogniCor might just be the thing for you.

When automated customer assistants truly understand the needs of customers and can feed back great information, businesses will cut down operation costs and increase efficiency. Originally sparked by a Ph.D. thesis on artificial intelligence, CogniCor allows businesses to respond to queries instantly and forever changes how customers interact with technology.

LendingFront

 

These folks make small business lending simple and profitable with a little help from technology. Small businesses are driven by cash flow, they say, and not the consumer scores that we’re all used to.

With LendingFront‘s cloud-based software, anyone can make sense of the data unique to small businesses. They continuously monitor a business’ life cycle to ensure better risk management, improve relationships, ease decision making and leave out a lot of manual processing.

Source Defense

 

 

Source Defense shields your website from third-party vulnerabilities and attacks.

Nearly every website integrates third parties to improve their user experiences; think tasks like ad management, design and marketing. “Instead of targeting large websites directly,” they write, “hackers today are targeting vulnerabilities in third-party companies.” This is just another gateway they can use to compromise your hard work.

While the cyber security industry often focuses on detection of threats, they make an effort to prevent these attacks before they start.

Want to learn how to craft a powerful brand like these St. Louis startups? It’s as simple as switching up your images for something more authentic. Request a demo with the button below or email [email protected] to craft a winning strategy. Featured photo courtesy of the St. Louis Regional Chamber.

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