AlphaGamma Startups Overview is a monthly overview that attempts to identify promising startups that have the potential to make a difference in their industries.
Do you know or run a startup yourself we should look into? Contact us or fill in the form here.
Here are our picks for November 2016.
AlphaGamma Startups Overview:
November 2016
Simple habit – the USA
Founder:Â Yunha Kim
Year founded:Â 2016
Website:Â www.simplehabitapp.com
Corporate email:Â help@simplehabitapp.com
Simple Habit isn’t an app that’s all about chakras or sitting in the dark for 30 minutes to meditate. Its five-minute sessions are for young professionals on the go — the busy and skeptical people like Kim who thought meditation would never work for them. Apple has already featured Simple Habit as one of its “new apps we love” in May.
Simple Habit meditations are designed by a Harvard psychologist and guided by the world’s best teachers that we’ve personally invited – from mindfulness teachers at Google to young former monks to authors to veterans.
Gazhayip Alem – Kazakhstan
Founder:Â Talgat Aitzhanov
Year founded:Â 2016
Website:Â www.oneshot-cg.com
Corporate email:Â salem@oneshot-cg.com
New innovative project “Gazhayip Alem” (Wonderful World) was successfully launched this autumn in Almaty. The uniqueness of this project is the innovative content of Kazakh folk tales with the effect of augmented reality. “Live” fairy tales are for children of 2-12 years old. Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology enriching the real world with digital information and media, such as 3D models and videos, overlaying in real-time the camera view of your smartphone, tablet, PC or connected glasses.
The goal of “Gazhayip Alem” project is to make a positive contribution to the development of children who are future patriots of Kazakhstan, as well as to spark the interest in Kazakh folk tales by the effect of augmented reality (development of auditory, visual and kinesthetic perception).
“We want to spark children’s interest in Kazakh folklore through innovative augmented reality. We made the most realistic and visually appealing animated content with high-quality audio accompaniment, which I think children will like. “Live” fairy tales will be available for the sale in December this year” – says General Director of One Shot studio Talgat Aitzhanov.
Armada Interactive – Finland
Founders:Â Mikko Kinnunen, Tero Teelahti, Juha Matikainen, Nick Joore, Giuliano Cremaschi
Year founded:Â 2015
Website:Â www.armadainteractive.com
Corporate email:Â info@armadainteractive.com
Founded in 2015, Armada Interactive is a 20-person strong mobile gaming company based in Helsinki and is set out to lead the nascent core market with born-mobile AAA, freemium, real-time multiplayer experiences. Its founding team is comprised of a number of industry veterans from Remedy, Crytek, Seriously and BioWare. The core team has a consistent history of creating top quality, successful games for multiple platforms.
Its founding team is comprised of a number of industry veterans from Remedy, Crytek, Seriously and BioWare. The core team has a consistent history of creating top quality, successful games for multiple platforms.
“The games being developed by Armada incorporate innovative and revolutionary UX and game play that bring the player experience to dimensions not previously seen in mobile gaming.” – says Ken Lamb, co-founder and partner at Initial Capital. “We are delighted to be backing a world class team which combines AAA development talent with mobile and freemium expertise.” Ben Holmes, general partner at Index Ventures, added.
Uniplaces – the UK
Founders:Â Miguel Santo Amaro, Leo Lara, Ben Grech, Mariano Kostelec
Year founded:Â 2015
Website:Â www.uniplaces.com
Corporate email:Â info@uniplaces.com
Uniplaces is the fastest-growing international website for booking student accommodation online. With Uniplaces, students can book easily and safely – as the Uniplaces team verify every student home on the website. Uniplaces has already helped hundreds of students find somewhere to live, including people from as far afield as China, Brazil and even Uzbekistan. The website is now launching in London, and Uniplaces is looking to partner with student accommodation providers who are keen to find a secure and convenient way to rent out student homes.
The site now caters for universities in 39 European cities, helping more than 10,000 students from over 165 countries find a flat
Talent.io – France
Founder:Â Jonathan Azoulay
Year founded:Â 2015
Website:Â www.talent.io
Corporate email:Â contact@talent.io
Talent.io is a marketplace specialized in helping software engineers get their dream job. The  team of 20+ people in Berlin and Paris is dedicated to creating a marketplace which is the simplest way for great tech companies to hire new teammates and for developers to find jobs they like in less than two weeks.
500 candidates signup every week, and only 10% of them are selected for a recruitment session. Candidates are hand-picked according to 2 criteria: their skills and their availability. talent.io employees will call each engineer individually for around 20 minutes. This way, companies know that they will find competent people on the platform.
Tiqets – the Netherlands
Founders:Â Maarten Raaijmakers, Luuc Elzinga, Christiaan Solcer
Year founded:Â 2013
Website:Â www.tiqets.com
Corporate email:Â luuc@tiqets.com
Tiqets is an innovative ticketing platform that is revolutionizing the way visitors discover, buy and use tickets for museums, shows and attractions. With instant and mobile tickets, the company is providing travelers with hassle-free entrance. Since its founding, the company has successfully connected the largest venues of the main tourist destinations.
Tiqets works directly with museums and public attractions to sell tickets to individuals and travel companies. Chief marketing officer Daniel Scheijen says the company, which operates in 16 countries, has found success by changing its business model from an “API aggregator” selling to businesses to a customer-facing ticket seller – a move, Tiqets claims, that led to growth in 2015 of more than 3,500 per cent.
Codacy – Portugal, the UK
Founders:Â Jaime Jorge, Joao Caxaria
Year founded:Â 2012
Website:Â www.codacy.com
Corporate email:Â team@codacy.com
Codacy is an automated code review tool that helps developers to save time in code reviews and to tackle technical debt efficiently.Developers spend 10-20% of their time reviewing code.
Gartner estimated the global technical debt to reach $1 Trillion by 2015. Codacy tracks new issues by severity level for every commit and pull request and allows a hassle free customization of static analysis It provides advanced code metrics on the health of a project and on the performance of teams.
Fundbox – Israel, the USAÂ
Founders:Â Tomer Michaeli, Yuval Ariav, Eyal Shinar
Year founded:Â 2012
Website:Â www.fundbox.com
Corporate email:Â yourfriends@fundbox.com
Fundbox helps small businesses with their cash flow. Rather than waiting up to 90 days for an invoice to clear, businesses can claim the exact amount on demand, with Fundbox taking a transaction fee each time. Its risk analysis plugs in to a company’s existing accounting software to analyse each invoice individually – a system it claims significantly reduces defaults in comparison to traditional credit scores.
Our mission is to give you the peace of mind you need to focus on your work instead of worrying about your cash flow gaps. We believe that you have all the potential you need to make your business flourish, and you can do it without any stressful long term commitments.
Which companies do you think should make it into the next AlphaGamma Startups Overview edition? Let us know in the comment section below or via the contact form.
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