It is time for another edition of TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco Forethought. This year, there are some great companies that were featured, including the latest from Seae Ventures and Forethought AI. Let’s take a look at these and see what they’re all about.
Forethought AI
Forethought is a new startup founded by a Palantir alumni and former LinkedIn engineer. The company offers an AI platform to help agents serve customers faster and smarter. It integrates with Zendesk and Salesforce. Among its clients are Instacart, Lime, Upwork and Crunchbase. And it has already won TechCrunch’s Disrupt Battlefield.
To date, Forethought has landed a $9 million Series A from NEA and Geodesic Capital, plus a $17 million Series B from Operator Collective, Neo and Qualtrics. The company also landed a spot on Forbes’ AI 50 2021: Companies to Watch list. Currently, Forethought supports over 10 million customer interactions per year and its latest round has pushed the company’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) from the usual tens of thousands to tens of millions. With its newfound capital, the company plans to ramp up its marketing efforts to win new clients and expand its engineering and support teams.
Goalsetter
Goalsetter is a financial education platform for families. It also provides tools and features that make it easy to save, spend and invest. To date, the company has partnered with over 100 companies, including NFL stars Russell Wilson and Ciara, NBA stars Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes, and American Express. As a result, it has been featured in AfroTech and Yahoo Finance. The company also has a fintech-friendly employee benefits solutions program.
Goalsetter has a full-featured financial app for the entire family. It even offers parents the option to freeze their child’s debit cards. One of the company’s newest features is the Goalsetter Invest. This is a fancy piece of software that gives parents and their kids the power to buy stocks. Using Goalsetter’s proprietary algorithms, parents can choose the stocks to buy based on their children’s age, gender, and education.
Cross-border remittances continue to be a huge part of people living and working abroad
Cross-border remittances continue to play a critical role in the economies of developing nations. They are a key part of the efforts to combat global poverty and provide humanitarian aid. These financial transfers also offer opportunities for small-scale businesses, healthcare, and educational development in low-income countries. Nevertheless, remittances can be very expensive and cumbersome, making them a concern for international migrants and their families.
Remittances have been the driving force behind increased development aid, and the value of remittances to lower-income countries more than tripled in 2016. According to the World Bank, remittances are projected to increase by 7.3% in 2021.
The World Bank estimates that remittances will reach $589 billion by the end of 2021. This means that remittances will outweigh official development assistance, which is used to help alleviate poverty in LMICs.
TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2018 Startup Battlefield
Startup Battlefield is the premier global startup launch competition. It is an early-stage pitch competition that provides startups with exposure, connections, and funding. The winner receives a $100,000 equity-free grand prize. Moreover, every participating team has the chance to join the Startup Battlefield alumni community.
The TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco conference brings together investors, entrepreneurs, and hackers to discuss top-of-mind tech topics. The conference covers Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, Mobility, Virtual Experiences (AR/VR), Health Tech, Blockchain, Justice/Diversity, FinTech, and more.
Startup Battlefield is a platform for startups to showcase their projects to influential VCs and entrepreneurs. Alumni include Dropbox, Fitbit, and Yammer. More than 100 startups have successfully exited through the program.
Each Startup Battlefield contestant will undergo two months of training to polish their stage pitch, strengthen their business case, and improve their product framing. They will also receive private pitch coaching before presenting their ideas on the Disrupt main stage. Ultimately, the winner will walk away with the coveted Disrupt Cup.
Seae Ventures Crook
Seae Ventures is no slouch when it comes to funding early-stage healthcare technology and services companies. They have also made a few smart investments in the form of spinoff startups that have gone on to make waves within their own industries. Founded in 2014 by two healthcare industry veterans, the company has amassed a hefty portfolio. Some of their recent high-profile high-flyers include: Nava Benefits, EnsoData and Choix. With a total fund size of $600 million, they’re more than a match for most venture capitalists. The company’s impressive tech stack is augmented by a large and ever-growing network of healthcare innovators, philanthropists, and trailblazers. Their mission is to create a sustainable network of health innovation hubs to facilitate the creation of transformative ideas that have the potential to change the face of healthcare as we know it.