GrepBeat returns for our third year of “Startups To Watch,” in which we recognize 10 early-stage tech startups that we believe are going to make a lot of noise going forward. We revealed this year’s list at an invite-only event on Thursday, Sept. 14 at The Pit in downtown Durham. The event was sponsored by Dualboot Partners, Hutchinson, HPG, Deloitte, Rankin McKenzie and Evergreen & Oak.
The list is restricted to early-stage tech or tech-enabled startups—no agencies or consultancies, and no life sciences/medical devices/biotech startups—with annual revenues of less than $3 million. The list also does not include repeat winners, so each year is a totally new list. [Here are links to the winners from 2022 and 2021, respectively.]
We received 100+ nominations this year, and just like in previous years, we had a very difficult time narrowing the field.
Here are GrepBeat’s 2023 Startups To Watch honorees, in alphabetical order:
HQ: Durham
Year Founded: 2019
CEO: Doug Neumann
Description: Arpio’s SaaS solution is designed to help businesses protect and restore their data if needed during a data outage or cyber-attack occurrence. Their technique of using “geo-redundancy,” which stores data in more than one center around the world, gives business owners peace of mind that their data is safe.
Read more about Arpio in our March 2020 article.
HQ: Durham
Year Founded: 2023
CEO: Robbie Allen
Description: Bionic Health is bringing accessibility to healthcare innovations with their solution to track preventative care measures rather than sick care. Their platform, along with a brick-and-mortar clinic in Durham, focuses on everything that comes after a patient’s physical or sick care. That includes advanced testing, diagnostics and data collection done with the purpose of giving advice on what patients should be doing to achieve their optimum level of health.
Read more about Bionic Health in our April 2023 feature.
HQ: Chapel Hill
Year Founded: 2018
CEO: Cayley Pater
Description: Made Trade makes buying ethically sourced goods easier and faster. Their values-driven ecommerce site allows artisans to sell a variety of goods such as bedding, furniture, clothing and accessories, in an effort to promote sustainability and brand awareness.
Read more about Made Trade’s history and beliefs in our March 2023 feature.
HQ: Durham
Year Founded: 2020
CEO: Matthew Schmidt
Description: Peoplelogic is a performance analytics management platform designed to give employers insights into their employees’ performances and how they can improve their experience. Launched in the height of the pandemic, their SaaS freemium business model aims to improve the performance relationship and management between employees and their employers.
Read more about Peoplelogic’s background in our March 2020 profile, and learn more about their $1.9 million pre-seed funding round in March 2023. Schmidt was also a guest on our Exit Stories podcast in October, 2020.
HQ: Durham/Oxford
Year Founded: 2021
CEO: Josh Dorfman
Description: Plantd is reimagining the way we build homes with hemp. That’s right, hemp. This company has figured out how to make sustainable home building materials using hemp fiber, which is three times stronger than wood fiber.
Read more about Plantd’s mission and background in our Oct 2021 profile.
HQ: Chapel Hill
Year Founded: 2017
CEO: Jeff Maze
Description: Quinsite is a healthcare analytics platform that brings together data from disparate sources, providing hospitals and private practices with detailed visibility into operations and actionable insights. This platform is designed to help leadership staff make data-driven decisions.
Read more about Quinsite’s history in our June 2021 feature and our coverage of their $2.5 million seed round closing in March 2022. Co-Founder and COO Jenny Maze was also a guest on For Starters this past March.
HQ: Raleigh
Year Founded: 2022
CEO: Eric Boduch
Description: Revcast provides a B2B software platform for revenue operations teams that manage the sales function for companies. The platform incorporates elements of artificial intelligence (AI) in order to help sales teams access information and identify risks more easily and efficiently.
Read more about Revcast in our June 2023 profile.
HQ: Raleigh
Year Founded: 2015
CEO: Ben Wingrove
Description: SchedulePop is an app platform that connects managers and employees for easier staff scheduling and organization. Initially intended for improving music venue teams, the software transformed and expanded to serve other industries, with a current focus on senior care facilities.
Read more about SchedulePop in our November 2019 profile.
HQ: Durham
Year Founded: 2023
CEO: Austin Armstrong
Description: Syllaby is an AI software tool designed to streamline content creation and help businesses run a successful video marketing campaign. The platform helps business owners create a social media content strategy easily and quickly.
Read more about Syllaby in our feature we wrote this past July.
HQ: Raleigh
Year Founded: 2006
CEO: Rob Creighton
Description: Windlift is a wind energy engineering and computer software company designed to produce energy more sustainably and cost-efficiently. Their Airborne Power Generation Systems operate similarly to the blade of a traditional wind turbine, but for less than 10 percent of the material and at a far lesser cost.
Read more about Windlift’s mission in this March 2019 GrepBeat feature.
