More than 4,500 early-stage U.S. companies spanning all 50 states participated in the Most Fundable Companies initiative, which is designed to bridge the gap between startups and the capital they need to succeed. The companies on the third annual list are located across the country and come from a variety of industries including biotechnology, renewable energy, aeronautics, and software technology.
“Investing in innovative companies can help our nation get back to work with good-paying jobs and bring the transformative change we all want,” said Deryck J. van Rensburg, dean of Pepperdine Graziadio Business School. “The Most Fundable Companies initiative aims to educate founders on the investor diligence process and recognize exceptional entrepreneurs who are solving today’s problems with inventive solutions and are also seeking investment capital to fuel their company's accelerated growth.”
Amongst the Most Fundable Companies winners were three Pepperdine Graziadio and Pepperdine Caruso School of Law alumni: Wayne Rickard (MBA) with Terecircuits, Dan O’Day (JD/MBA) with ECFX, and Nelson Quintero (JD) with ECFX.
The Most Fundable Companies assessment evaluates several company variables including financial projections, market opportunity, intellectual property, competitive advantage in their market, and the strength of the management team expertise, all of which are used to produce a fundability score for every company that participates. Pepperdine Most Fundable Companies is powered by The Venture Alliance.
Pepperdine Graziadio 2020 Most Fundable Companies List (alphabetically listed by category):
Platinum:
BNNano, Inc. (Burlington, NC)
BNNano leverages cutting-edge materials innovations to transform and return value to industrial commodities, facilitating applications such as aerospace, hypersonics, thermal management, and additive manufacturing.
Calviri, Inc. (Tempe, AZ)
Calviri will end cancer deaths worldwide via development of new diagnostic and therapeutic products, such as a chip for early detection of antibodies in blood and preventive vaccines.
Terecircuits Corporation (Mountain View, CA)
Terecircuits has developed a new class of polymer and novel circuit assembly techniques to support microassembly and mass transfer for advanced displays and electronics.
Gold:
Ai Software, LLC d/b/a Capacity (St. Louis, MO)
Capacity is a new kind of help desk, powered by artificial intelligence, that automates support for your customers and employees.
Athena, Inc. (New Orleans, LA)
Athena enables users to collect back child support in less time and for less money.
Flower Turbines, Inc. (Lawrence, NY)
Flower Turbines makes small wind turbines with aerodynamic innovations that allow them to change the world market for uses near people and buildings.
RRTC, Inc. (Belle Mead, NJ)
RRTC is a platform-manufacturing technology company. Patented, low-cost, sustainable solidification technology creates novel composites with a performance edge for a wide range of applications.
Silver:
Agtools, Inc. (Irvine, CA)
Agtools is a SaaS Food and Ag worldwide supply-chain platform offering real-time actionable intelligence data to increase profitability and avoid food waste. 2019 Microsoft ML/AI award winner.
Baby Barista (Simi Valley, CA)
Baby Barista’s connected machine revolutionizes infant formula feeding by making the perfect bottle in under 30 seconds and delivering organic formula right to your doorstep.
ECFX (Venice, CA)
ECFX provides a cloud-based enterprise notice management system using intelligent automation to streamline the entire electronic court notice workflow with firmwide administration and analytics.
ExpressCells (Philadelphia, PA)
ExpressCells is a revenue-generating genetic engineering company that creates knock-in cell lines for biological research more quickly than competing technologies and enabling better experiments.
Global Thermostat (New York, NY)
Global Thermostat commercializes its advanced, multi-patented technology to transform carbon dioxide from a global liability into an opportunity for global prosperity.
Target Arm, Inc. (Ridgefield, CT)
Target Arm’s device, Tular, enables launch and recovery of both rotary wing and fixed wing drones from any moving vehicle, autonomously, and even during windy conditions.
WinSanTor, Inc. (San Diego, CA)
WinSanTor is developing what may be the only disease-modifying treatment for peripheral neuropathy, a debilitating neurodegenerative condition that affects the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
Bronze:
Adranos, Inc. (West Lafayette, IN)
Adranos has developed a high-performance solid rocket fuel, ALITEC, that can increase the range or payload capacity of launch systems by up to 40 percent.
Cast21 (Chicago, IL)
Cast21 is changing the way the world heals with QUINTM technology, a waterproof alternative to a cast or brace for broken bones.
Hope Trust (Holmdel, NJ)
Hope Trust automates the special needs planning process, allowing families to ensure that the complex, interdisciplinary needs of their loved one will be fulfilled.
Perfitly, LLC (New York, NY)
Perfitly’s AR/VR-AI platform enables online apparel shoppers to try on and visualize garments in 3D before buying, reducing returns and increasing sales.
Perytor Therapeutics, Inc. (San Antonio, TX)
Perytor Therapeutics discovered a new category of drugs extracted from placental tissue that can be used to promote regeneration, while reducing pain and inflammation.
Wind Talker Innovations, Inc. (Anchorage, AK)
Wind Talker Innovations develops solutions to transcend the limitations of existing networks, allowing instantaneous and high-speed communications between users on- or off-grid.
Disclaimers: The Pepperdine Graziadio Most Fundable Companies List does not represent an offer to sell securities. It does not constitute investment advice, nor is it an endorsement of any particular product or service. Pepperdine University is not a broker-dealer and does not perform services provided by a broker-dealer, including but not limited to any financial or investment advising.
Read the original article on Business Wire.
