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Most Promising Startups of 2022 | Insider

Story Highlights
  • The Insider asked hundreds of top venture capitalists to name the most promising startups of 2022.
  • VCs were asked to name companies inside and outside of their portfolios.
  • They delivered an exciting list across industries like fintech, healthcare, edtech and more.

Over 260 of the most promising startups of 2022 in edtech, fintech, crypto, proptech and more, according to VCs

Each year, Insider reach out to hundreds of VCs at nearly 100 firms and ask them to tell us which early-stage startups are the most promising of the year.

VCs were asked to name startups within their portfolio — after all, they liked those startups so much they invested — as well as outside their portfolios — after all, they are the startup experts and can’t invest in them all.

And they were also asked to name startups across all stages, particularly earlier-stage companies that are not widely known.

This year, our research was particularly insightful because it’s been a tumultuous time in startup land. VCs have grown tighter with investments and startups that were not well-prepared to weather the cold have struggled.

Layoffs have even hit some of the darling industries of 2021 like fintech, healthtech, and proptech.

Below, we list hundreds of the most promising startups of 2022, sorted by industry.

Most Promising Startups of 2022 | Climate Tech:

  • 44.01 is turning carbon into rocks
  • Alectro is a virtual-sustainability officer
  • Aquatic Labs is unlocking the blue economy
  • BeeHero is increasing farming-crop yields by saving the bees
  • BeZero Carbon is increasing transparency in the carbon markets
  • Bike Club is keeping bikes in circulation longer
  • Biomason is making an alternative to cement
  • Bio-Sep turns sawdust into biochemicals
  • Bramble Energy is betting on hydrogen vehicles
  • Carla runs a managed marketplace for used electric vehicles
  • Circulor is arming companies with ESG data for better decision making
  • Charm Industrial uses bio-oil for carbon sequestration
  • Cleaner Seas is tackling microplastics, starting with laundry
  • Ebb Carbon is developing ocean-based carbon removal while treating acidification
  • EV Biotech is using science to discover microbes for food ingredients and bioplastics
  • EV.Energy helps consumers get cheaper deals on energy use
  • Imagindairy is creating animal-free milk alternatives that taste like the real thing
  • Kita Earth is de-risking carbon removal through insurance
  • Living Carbon genetically engineers plants to capture more carbon
  • Normative helps retail, construction, and furniture companies count their carbon

Most Promising Startups of 2022 | Consumer Tech:

  • Aalto, a real-estate marketplace
  • Backbone, an accessory that turns an iPhone into a game controller
  • Belong, a home-rental-management platform
  • BeReal, a photo-sharing social media app
  • Brigit, an automated money lender
  • ByHeart, an infant-formula startup
  • Chief, a private membership network for women leaders
  • Curated, a personalized retail marketplace
  • Ever Scouts, a digital classroom for kids
  • Gamma, a service to create slide decks

Most Promising Startups of 2022 | Crypto:

  • Art Blocks is a marketplace for NFTs featuring art randomly generated by an algorithm.
  • Bittensor runs a decentralized network that incentivizes creating and sharing machine-learning models.
  • Cion Digital makes tools for fintech companies to integrate cryptocurrency into their technology stack.
  • Clutch makes a crypto wallet designed to be accessible to Web3 newcomers.
  • Cred Protocol makes credit-scoring tools for decentralized finance.
  • Crossmint enables people to purchase NFTs without a crypto wallet.
  • Dialect builds tools for Web3 messaging on the Solana blockchain.
  • Disco makes tools for Web3 users to establish their identity across different services.
  • Doodles runs a crypto community built around a collection of NFTs created by Scott Martin, the illustrator known as Burnt Toast.
  • DressX runs a marketplace for digital fashion items that can be worn on virtual platforms such as Roblox and Meta.
  • Dune runs a service that lets anyone create and view dashboards showing real-time blockchain data.
  • Dynamic makes tools for developers to integrate crypto wallets across different blockchains into their applications.
  • Ejara is a crypto-investment company directed toward customers in French-speaking West Africa.
  • Espresso Systems is a blockchain designed to enable Web3 developers to build apps at scale with minimal transaction fees while protecting user privacy.
  • Ethereum Name Service is a decentralized naming service for crypto usernames, wallets, and websites.
  • Euler runs a service that allows users to lend and borrow crypto assets.
  • Floor is a mobile app for NFT owners to track the value of their collections.

Most Promising Startups of 2022 | Education Tech:

  • Amira Learning: AI reading assistant that helps students as they read out loud
  • BrightCrowd: digital yearbooks for school alumni
  • Brightwheel: operational software for preschools and day-care centres
  • Brilliant: interactive virtual STEM courses
  • Campus: online community-college programs
  • CareAcademy: online training for eldercare professionals
  • Co:rise: computer science and data courses taught by professionals
  • Coursedog: course-catalogue management for higher education
  • Ever Scouts: virtual scouting program for kids and teens
  • Forage: professional training courses for before you’re hired
  • FourthRev: career accelerator for digital workers
  • FutureFit: AI-powered guides for changing careers

Most Promising Startups of 2022 | Fintech:

  • Albert pairs financial advice with financial products so consumers can find the right service for them.
  • Arch Labs is a digital administrator for private-market investments, providing services like tax automation and tech supporting capital-call requests and distributions.
  • Ascend offers insurance companies a platform to automate customer payments.
  • Atomic offers drop-in APIs that consumer-focused fintechs can use to offer investing and wealth-management products to their customers.
  • Basis Theory provides a way for companies to tokenize and better protect customers’ financial data.
  • Bilt Rewards offers a loyalty-rewards program and credit card that allow renters to earn points that can be redeemed at airline companies, hotels, fitness classes, and other places.
  • Blue Onion provides accounting services such as reconciliation for e-commerce merchants.
  • Boom & Bucket is an online marketplace for used construction equipment, providing data like ownership history and maintenance records as well as financing options in one place.
  • Brigit helps prevent bank-account overdrafts through its prediction engine and automated lender.
  • Butter works with subscription-based companies to reduce payment churn and maintain legitimate, regular payments with customers.

Most Promising Startups of 2022 | Health Tech:

  • AcuityMD helps MedTech companies sell their products to doctors more efficiently.
  • Aqemia is using AI to discover drugs.
  • Commure helps health organizations exchange information.
  • Cornerstone AI cleans healthcare data for faster analysis.
  • Delfi Diagnostics is using liquid biopsies to diagnose cancer.
  • Flexpa gives people a better way to share their health data.
  • Infinitus Systems automates time-consuming calls between providers and health insurers.
  • Lasso created a marketing and data analytics platform for the healthcare industry.
  • Osmind supports mental-health providers by administering cutting-edge treatments like ketamine and psychedelics.
  • Ozette is using AI to study the immune system.

Most Promising Startups of 2022 | Real Estate / Property Tech:

  • Aalto, a faster alternative to Zillow
  • Belong Home, a tool for landlords that also gives renters cash back
  • Dongnae allows renters to pay monthly instead of a huge sum upfront
  • Entera, an AI platform to help investors buy more homes
  • Ergeon, a fence-building startup
  • Flex, allows renters to make payments throughout the month
  • Humming Homes lets homeowners request maintenance help as if they were renters
  • Inspectify, a streamlined, digitized way to get a home inspection
  • Join, offers cloud project-management software that helps construction companies
  • Juno, builds homes out of sustainable materials
  • Keyway, an easier way to invest in commercial real estate

Most Promising Startups of 2022 | Retail Tech:

  • Frubana is an online grocery shopping platform for restaurants and small retailers in Latin America.
  • Catch allows online shoppers to complete purchases by paying directly from their bank accounts instead of with credit cards.
  • Whatnot is a Livestream-retail marketplace where users can buy and sell collectibles like Funko Pops and trading cards.
  • Rutter provides a universal API that allows e-commerce companies to easily connect with all of the systems they would use to run their business.
  • The Expert is a digital platform turned e-commerce home-goods site that pairs users with high-end interior designers for one-on-one video consultations about home renovations and decor.
  • Convictional helps retailers to onboard their vendors — and start selling their products online — much more quickly than more traditional methods.
  • Kojo is a platform for construction firms to source and purchase building materials.

Source: Insider

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