🔥Rising Stars: 10 Startups with Strong Momentum and Success Signals
Special Edition with Community Features
👋 Hi, I’m Andre and welcome to my newsletter Data-Driven VC which is all about becoming a better investor with Data & AI. Join 32,245 thought leaders from VCs like a16z, Accel, Index, Sequoia, and more to understand how startup investing becomes more data-driven, why it matters, and what it means for you.
Welcome to another “Picks of the Week” episode where we spotlight the hottest stealth, early, and growth startups across regions and sectors - based on data & signals (find last week’s edition here).
This format is a collaboration with Harmonic as they help us source the companies based on unique growth signals. Get a personalized feed of trending startups for your specific criteria here.
Let’s dive in!
Featured #Community Picks🔥
New section alert! Ever since we started this format, we’ve received dozens of startup submissions from you. We looked at all of them and decided to spotlight the first batch of 3 exciting opportunities today. Let’s go!
#Community Stealth Founder🥷🏻
Rodrigo Allier 🇪🇸
Experience: Glovo, Unilever, Goldman Sachs
Education: Universidad Pontificia Comillas (BSc)
#Community Early Startup🐣
Crosscheck 🇺🇸
Industry: Compliance
What they do: Crosscheck provides a platform that automates data management to streamline compliance and certification processes in line with the European Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII)
Last Funding: -
Total Funding: -
Notable Investors: -
Team: Bohdan Dreihaupt, Nikita Fordui
#Community Growth Startup🚀
Orca AI 🇬🇧
Industry: Maritime Shipping
What they do: Orca AI improves shipping operational safety, efficiency, and sustainability through a single AI and computer-vision-based operations platform.
Last Funding: Series A
Total Funding: 38’600’000 USD
Notable Investors: Playfair Capital, Hyperlink Ventures, MizMaa Ventures, OCV, Intel Ignite
Team: Yarden Gross, Lirit Belisha, Dor Raviv
Harmonic Picks of the Week🔥
If you want your own startup, your portfolio company, or just a rockstar team to get featured in front of our audience of 30k+ investors, submit it for free here.
And now let’s jump right into Harmonic’s top 10 picks of the week👇
Stealth Founders 🥷🏻
Alex Melzer 🇩🇪
Experience: Zolar (Co-Founder), Soventix Canada, SOLARWATT
Education: Technical University Dresden (MSc)
Dr. Andre Sommer 🇩🇪
Experience: Cara Care (Co-Founder, Acquired), Studiblog (Co-Founder, Acquired)
Education: University of Bonn (MD)
Talfan Evans 🇬🇧
Experience: Google DeepMind, Imperial College, UCL
Education: UCL (PhD, MSc), University of Oxford (BSc)
Aravind Kalaiah 🇺🇸
Experience: OpenAI, Lightmatter, Facebook, Cerebras Systems, Nervana Systems, SureField (Co-Founder), Forespire (Co-Founder), Symantec, NVIDIA, Nokia, GE Global Research
Education: University of Maryland (PhD), Stony Brook University (MSc), Indian Institute of Technology (BSc)
Karan Sakhuja 🇺🇸
Experience: Tap!, Knock (Co-Founder), SportsYapper, Plankick (Co-Founder), Chripme (Co-Founder, Acquired), Florida Blue, Nationwide Financial, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, IBM
Education: Stanford University
Dan Benger 🇺🇸
Experience: ProtectOnce (Co-Founder, Acquired), Codefresh (Co-Founder, Acquired), CA Technologies, BlazeMeter, Towntouch, AT&A, Netcom
Education: Tel Aviv University (MSc), University of Leicester (MBA)