18 startups that VCs say will thrive this year despite the economic crisis

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  • Many early-stage startups are struggling due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Some are laying off employees to conserve their cash, others are closing shop altogether.
  • But there are other startups that will thrive in spite of these tough conditions or even because of them.
  • We asked the experts — venture capitalists — to tell us about the startups in their portfolios that are still on track for success in today's conditions and that they think have bright futures tomorrow, too.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
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Given that many of today's unicorns and newly public companies were founded in the middle of the last economic downturn, that made us wonder: Who are the unicorns of tomorrow that are being forged in the economic turmoil of today?

To find out, we went to the startup experts: the VCs that funded them. We asked them to tell us about a seed-through early-stage startup in their portfolio that they believe is exceptionally well positioned right now and why. (We limited this list to companies that have raised less than $100 million in funding to-date, though most of them are far smaller and have raised less than $30 million).

All fundraising estimates come from Pitchbook, the keeper of such records. 

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Abnormal Security: stopping the onslaught of COVID-19 phishing attacks

Saam Motamedi
Saam Motamedi, Greylock Greylock

Funding: $24 million

Last raise: $24 million Series A, 11/19

What it does: Abnormal Security offers AI-powered cloud email security to stop known and unknown threats.

VC: Saam Motamedi, Greylock

Motamedi named Abnormal Security to our list of startups expected to boom in 2020 published in January, before the COVID-19 crises. He remains sold on the startup's prospects as its role in stopping hackers becomes even more important during this work from home era.

"The number of cyberattacks related to COVID-19 is spiking, with some researchers reporting that these related attacks represent the largest set of attacks on the same theme they've ever seen," he said. 

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Clubhouse: collaboration tools for remote software development teams

sarah guo greylock partners vc
Sarah Guo, Greylock Greylock Partners

Funding: $45 million

Last raise: $25 million in 01/20

What it does: Clubhouse makes online software that helps remote teams of software developers collaborate on projects

VC: Sarah Guo, Greylock

"Thousands of companies already use Clubhouse," says Guo. "With COVID-19 resulting in a massive shift to work from home, Clubhouse is only becoming more important to ensuring managers, engineers, and their counterparts all stay in sync." 

 

 

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Dumpling: putting gig workers in command of their own clients

Ann Miura Ko
Ann Miura-Ko, Floodgate YouTube:Blitzscaling

Funding: $8 million

Last raise: $3 million, 08/19

VC: Ann Miura-Ko, Floodgate

What it does: Dumpling provides an app for gig workers who want to build their own clientele instead of working for another company, like Instacart. They are currently aimed at grocery shoppers.

"I call them 'the Ironman suit' for the solopreneur," Miura-Ko says. "They started in grocery shopping over a year ago and you can imagine they are really having a moment right now."

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Flux: matching employees with open jobs

Naomi Ionita, Menlo Ventures
Naomi Ionita, Menlo Ventures Menlo Ventures

Funding: N/A (seed round)

What it does: Flux helps companies hire for open positions from within their own organizations and helps employees highlight their most impactful work.

VC: Naomi Ionita, Menlo Ventures

"Flux is a people operations platform that aligns best-fit employees to the evolving needs of the business," Ionita said.

Since the COVID-19 crises began, companies with hiring freezes are looking for ways to fill open roles and employees are eager to show their value, she explains.

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Karat: online technical interviews

Parker Barrile, Norwest
Parker Barrile, Norwest Norwest Venture Partners

Funding: $41 million

Last raise: $28 million, 05/19

What it does: Karat conducts first-round technical interviews via video, relying on a network of experienced engineers to assess candidates. 

VC: Parker Barrile, Norwest

"Karat combines technical rigor with a human touch in a way that's ideal for an increasingly flexible world still fundamentally driven by tech talent," says Barrile.

Karat has conducted thousands of online video interviews for clients like Indeed, Pinterest, Intuit, and MuleSoft. It was well positioned to help HR teams keep working during work-from-home mandates.

 

 

 

 

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Hawthorne Effect: follow-up doctor's visits at home

Chris Farmer SignalFire
Chris Farmer, SignalFire Bloomberg TV/screengrab

Funding: $13 million

Last raise: $13 million, 04/19

What it does: Hawthorne Effect is a platform for health monitoring and follow-up visits that enables in-home access for clinical trials.

VC: Chris Farmer, SignalFire

The immuno-compromised population "can't go in to the hospital during a pandemic" but ongoing care is "still critical for patient health and maintaining clinical trials," says Farmer.

During the COVID-19 crisis, Hawthorne partnered with Verily (a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet) to staff drive-through screenings in the Bay Area. 

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Hone: live online employee training

Aileen Lee
Aileen Lee, Cowboy Ventures International Business Times/Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Funding: $3.6 million

Last raise: $3.6 million, 1/19

What it does: Hone is a platform for online employee training with live instructors.

VC: Aileen Lee, Cowboy

"In addition to being great for WFH, it's a better training experience: world class instructors who are trained to motivate and engage in a digital environment," says Lee. "So since this crisis, demand has accelerated dramatically."

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Solv: book virtual doctor's appointments

James Slavet
James Slavet, Greylock Greylock

Funding: $23 million

Last raise: $17 million, 12/17

What it does: Solv allows people to book and pay for same-day appointments to Urgent Care centers, rather than wait days for their primary doctor, with an emphasis on virtual visits. 

VC: James Slavet, Greylock

VCs named Solv as a startup that will boom this year back in January, before coronavirus turned the world on its head. In light of the COVID-19 crises, Solv has been offering its video telemedicine platform for free to urgent care clinics, primary care physicians and other providers across the US. 

"Telemedicine is the safest way for providers to contain the spread of COVID-19 while continuing to administer care," says Slavet. "Video visits on Solv grew 3400% over the past month, and the number of daily active telemedicine providers on Solv has increased by 2425% in the last 30 days." 

 

 







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Monthly: tools to learn and complete creative projects in a month

Ann Miura Ko, Floodgate
Ann Miura-Ko, Floodgate YouTube/ModCloth/screen capture

Funding: Seed round, details unavailable. 

What it does: Monthly is an online education platform that offers intensive 30-day creative classes from well-known teachers with the goal of a completed project at class end, such as finishing a realistic painting, writing an original song, or producing a film.

VC: Ann Miura-Ko, Floodgate

"I think of them as the equivalent to running a marathon for your creative endeavors," says  Miura-Ko. "The world's greatest teachers are coming onto this platform to teach creative pursuits that require a significant effort (10+ hours per week by students)." 

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Metabase: low-cost open source data analytics

Julia Schottenstein
Julia Schottenstein, NEA NEA

Funding: $21 million

Last raise: $8 million, 4/19

What it does: Metabase is a highly popular open source business analytics platform. 

VC: Julia Schottenstein, NEA

"Over 20,000 companies love and use Metabase regularly to get insight on how their business is doing," says Schottenstein.

Because the open source version is free to use (companies pay the startup for enterprise-grade support), Metabase has seen "a surge in interest" during these times of shrinking IT budgets, Schottenstein says. 

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PlayVS: the only high school sports leagues available during lockdown

Rick Yang, NEA
Rick Yang, New Enterprise Associates NEA

Funding: $97 million

Last raise: $50 million, 9/19

What it does: PlayVS is a platform for competitive high-school esports leagues.

VC: Rick Yang, New Enterprise Associates

While it a more established company than the other seed and early-stage startups on this list, the coronavirus crises has given it some unusual visibility. 

"With schools closed and traditional sports unable to run, esports is one of the few extracurricular activities that can be done remotely," Yang says. "It keeps teammates connected and also provides another touchpoint between students and coaches/teachers in an extracurricular setting."

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ShipBob: Amazon Prime-like delivery speeds for any ecommerce company

Shawn Carolan, Menlo Ventures
Shawn Carolan, Menlo Ventures Menlo Ventures

Funding: $64 million

Last raise: $40 million, 9/18

What it does: ShipBob helps small and mid-size ecommerce businesses offer Amazon Prime-like fast delivery.

VC: Shawn Carolan, Menlo Ventures

ShipBob is another company that's a bit more established but worthy of this list because COVID-19 offering the company a big moment.

"It is seeing a surge in demand in the wake of COVID-19 due to the increase in online shopping tied with the number of people staying home," says Carolan. 

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Jyve: a labor market for stocking supermarkets

Chris Farmer SignalFire
Chris Farmer, SignalFire Bloomberg TV/screengrab

Funding: $51 million

Last raise: $35 million, 01/19

What it does: Jyve provides contract labor for supermarket stocking and display merchandising, helping brands hire enough people to put products on shelves.

VC: Chris Farmer, SignalFire

"They are helping to power the most critical supply chain in the country: the ~700B US grocery industry," says Farmer. "They're working with the biggest retailers, CPG's [consumer packaged goods] to keep critical food on the shelves." 

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Tally: manage money and pay off credit card debt

Aileen Lee
Aileen Lee, Cowboy Ventures International Business Times/Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Funding: $92 million

Last raise: $50 million, 6/19

What it does: Tally is a consumer app that helps people manage money and pay off credit card debt. This is another more established company that earned a shout-out because of the new economic reality of 2020.

VC: Aileen Lee, Cowboy Ventures

"U.S. consumers have a record-high $1 trillion in credit card debt, which will likely, sadly grow during this crisis," says Lee. "In this time of economic uncertainty and widespread anxiety, Tally's ability to help reduce financial and emotional burdens for consumers is super useful/important."

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Notable Health: modern office software for healthcare centers

Jerry Chen Greylock
Jerry Chen, Partner at Greylock Greylock

Funding: $16.5 million

Last raise: $13.5 million, 9/18

What it does: Notable Health sells modern office management software for healthcare centers that uses voice, AI, and automation. It's best known for its voice app that lets doctors add notes to a patients health records by talking to their Apple watch, in trial with Blue Shield of California as of last October.

The software does other things, too like pre-visit reminders, charting and helping with insurance claims.

VC: Jerry Chen, Partner at Greylock

Notable's mobile-optimized check in has already helped some facilities triage patients that "reported flu-like symptoms and recent travel to known COVID-19 hot spots," says Chen.

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uConnect: make jobs the focus of college degrees

York IE Team
Kyle York, York IE York IE

Funding: $3.4 million

Last raise: $870,000 in March, 2020

What it does: uConnect is an app to help students find and understand career placement results for  different colleges and universities. Colleges can also use it for marketing, while existing students can use it to find job fairs and other resources.

VC: Kyle York, York IE

"Coronavirus has led to the closure of college campuses across the country," says York. "As a result, the largest experiment in online learning is underway."

Colleges have traditionally been a beneficiary of unemployment as people go back to school to updates skills. But in today's world, colleges may have to justify their costs by sharing job placement data.

"To maintain their value, they must prepare and connect their students with the jobs that can advance their lives," he adds.

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Unagi Scooters: don't share your ride with anyone

Shawn Carolan, Menlo Ventures
Shawn Carolan, Menlo Ventures Menlo Ventures

Funding: $4 million

Last raise: $4 million, 9/19

What it does: Unagi makes a portable folding electric scooter that can travel long distances on a single charge.

VC: Shawn Carolan, Menlo Ventures

Even after the world's economy opens back up, it may take a while for normalcy to return. For example, people may remain wary about their transportation options.

"Personal micro-mobility will benefit vs shared services as the post-Corona population seeks to reduce exposure by relying less heavily on public transportation and shared vehicles," says Carolan.

He says that there's been anecdotal evidence about post-virus behavior of commuters in China that's making him especially confident in this thesis. 

 

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Wildlife Studios: video games for people bored at home

Brian Feinstein
Bessemer Venture Partners, Brian Feinstein Bessemer Venture Partners

Funding: $60 million

Last raise: $60 million, 12/19

What it does: Wildlife Studios is actually an established company that is new to the VC world. It was founded by brothers Victor and Arthur Lazarte back in 2011 from São Paulo and employs 500 people. It's released over 70 games, downloaded by nearly 2 billion users in 115 countries, such as War Machines, Colorfy, Zooba, Tennis Clash and others. 

But it only recently raised its Series A round, led by Benchmark Capital, and came out of the gate as a unicorn.

VC: Brian Feinstein, Bessemer Venture Partners 

(Bessemer led the company's first, undisclosed seed round of capital in 2012 when the company had just two hit games.)

The stuck-at-home nature of the coronavirus worldwide has been a boon to the game company.

"Wildlife downloads are up more than 50% from where they were a few weeks ago," says Feinstein, "Which suggests that gaming business are seeing meaningful tailwinds."

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