Sure, the latest initiatives from the Teslas, Apples and Googles of the industry tend to dominate the tech news space — and with good reason. Still, the big guns aren’t the only ones bringing innovation to the sector.
In an effort to highlight up-and-coming startups, Built In launched The Future 5 across 8 major U.S. tech hubs. Each quarter, we will feature five tech startups, nonprofits or entrepreneurs in each of these hubs who just might be working on the next big thing. Read our round-up of rising startups from last quarter here.
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Tech innovation has thrived along the Puget Sound for decades. While developments in healthtech, IT and aerospace largely define the area’s tech sector, new names are making a splash in other spaces. Built In highlights unique startups and companies in the Future 5 series. This quarter, innovators in sectors like education, VR and mobile technology made the cut. Read on to learn more about the Future 5 of Seattle tech.
Built In’s Future 5 Up-and-Coming Seattle Startups in Q4 of 2022
- Adaptively Education (Edtech)
- CHEQ (Payments)
- EagleView (Drones)
- FocusVR (Virtual Reality)
- PairTree (Mobile)
When the pandemic forced many parts of our lives to shift to digital platforms, virtual education proved to be a difficult adaptation for young students. To help young learners regain lost ground, Adaptively Education launched its personalized learning solution.
Combining virtual learning solutions with live instruction, Adaptively’s video classroom solution provides students with real-time access to teachers who guide them through the company’s proprietary curriculum. Its platform focuses on reading and math and tailors to each student’s unique learning style.
As the platform strives to build out its network of currently 65 educators spanning four states, part of the company’s growth will also come from adding new platform features, like an incentive system for positive behavior and other gamified aspects.
“In the short term, we are looking to build out our analytics capabilities to begin measuring student learning in relation to their peers on a national level, as well as measuring our curriculum and its absorption by our students,” Patrick Yee, Adaptively’s co-founder and CTO, told Built In. “Later, we will look to build a truly adaptive learning system that learns how to best promote the mastery of concepts to students using our platform based on how they learn.”
Dining out with friends can lose its luster if a few people don’t show up for the outing. Though no matter how far away someone might be, CHEQ aims to make those empty seats at the table feel filled with its social ordering solution.
The platform allows someone to virtually treat another person to a menu item at a nearby restaurant, cafe or bar. The sender can customize their virtual gift with various images, gifs, messages and the like. After the order’s been placed, the recipient can redeem their gift by presenting the scannable code at the bottom of their virtual receipt to the restaurant.
Tom Lapham, the company’s founder and CEO, came up with the idea for CHEQ after spending time abroad in China and seeing this kind of technology in action. He decided to build a solution of his own upon realizing the same tech wasn’t available in the states. The platform’s main intention is to connect people with those they care about when they can’t be there in person.
“Two things have happened that have left us really disconnected in the world, and one has been social media, [of] which the purpose has been to try to connect people but actually, I think it’s done the opposite,” Lapham said. “And then you had the pandemic on top of that, and we just couldn’t physically go out and see people. I think people are in need of more of [a] human touch.”
In addition to its consumer-facing solution, CHEQ also offers payment processing tech for venues and restaurants. Expanding its reach is a key part of CHEQ’s ultimate goal to become the world’s leading social payments platform.
Taking aerial imagery to the next level, EagleView Technologies provides local governments, insurance companies and construction companies with detailed measurements and images.
EagleView’s images are primarily captired from airplanes. In partnership with Skydio, the company also uses drones to provide aerial imagery for homeowners.
“Our vision is to create trust and transparency in the insurance, roofing, solar and government industries in which we operate,” a company representative told Built In via email. “This means that we will become the central source of truth for anyone who wants [geographic information system] data for professionals before they install solar panels, before they repair a roof, when they need to access damage after a crippling hurricane or any number of other scenarios.”
When it was first founded, EagleView specialized in 3D measurement technologies and analysis software. A subsequent merger with erial imagery and analytics company Pictometry expanded its capabilities to include imagery, analysis and 3D measurement. Across all of its platform features, EagleView can capture aerial imagery that is four times more detailed than standard aerial imagery and 70 times more detailed than standard satellite imagery, according to the company.
When gym doors closed during the pandemic, people took to their living rooms to keep in shape. Helping fuel their dedication to fitness, a local startup is working to make these at-home workout routines more immersive.
Fitness and virtual reality can now go hand-in-hand thanks to FocusVR, a solution dedicated to bringing professional-led workouts into the metaverse. The company, founded by Carter Chavez, allows actual fitness trainers to hold classes in virtual environments.
“If I have my friends in New York and [we] do a yoga class together on Zoom, it doesn’t feel like we’re actually hanging out in person doing that,” Chavez told Built In. “But with VR, it feels as if we’ve actually spent time together even though we’re in different time zones across the country.”
FocusVR is an online marketplace where fitness trainers can host live exercise classes in the metaverse. Classes range from strength training, stretching, yoga, meditation, boxing and more and can hold up to 15 participants and one trainer per room. To join a class, participants must use Meta Quest 2 headset to follow along with the trainer.
Going forward, Chavez wants to continue rolling out the FocusVR marketplace and developing new features. Eventually, he sees FocusVR partnering with gyms that would open up VR training as workout options for members that are already part of a gym.
PairTree founder Erin Quick and her husband had difficulties conceiving, so they saw a reproductive specialist. They spent more than $70,000 on several artificial inseminations and three rounds of in vitro fertilization, which resulted in three miscarriages. Afterward, Quick said she was emotionally, physically and financially broken.
Afterwards, the couple decided to take the private adoption route which ultimately saved them upwards of $30,000 and potentially years of time. After their own successful adoption experience, the Quicks wanted to help other families navigate the adoption process.
“Our platform allows expectant moms to have ultimate control over their journey. They decide if they want to reach out, which families to reach out to, the pace of the relationship and how far they want to go with a family,” Quick told Built In via email. “That said, in order to create a more collaborative ecosystem and therefore safe, ethical and transparent [process], we also partner with a wide variety of adoption professionals, from social workers to adoption attorneys to adoption agencies.”
Down the line, PairTree will begin working with embryo donor families to give them control over who they donate their embryos to. The company is also working with employers to get adoption covered as an employee benefit.
