of the month, ahead of a $750,000 seed round it hopes to close by next June.
It’s even established a relationship with Baltimore-based Under Armour, whose performance in stores and in the stock market appear to have rendered last year’s suit goof an afterthought. “We’re on their radar,” Hampel says.
Here are descriptions and updates on the other three companies who presented:
—Exis helps programmers establish a secure link between the mobile and Web applications they’re developing and servers in the cloud. The current process for providing this connection, known as “network code” is repetitive and error-prone, says co-founder and CEO Dale Willis. Exis also hosts cloud-based services like user authentication, which means that a developer can get by with only being able to code in one language. During his pitch, Willis said Exis is starting by targeting mobile app developers and has received funding from the National Science Foundation and Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.
—Emonix is developing an Internet-connected device that can measure water hardness—the amount of dissolved minerals present in the water—and add salt to a water softener as needed, rather than at fixed intervals using a timer. Founder and CEO Neil Klingensmith says many commercial buildings use too much salt because their water softeners are not configured properly. Building managers can reduce their salt costs by as much as 40 percent with an Emonix monitoring device, he says, which will cost approximately $75 to $150 a month per building.
—23Vivi is a virtual storefront for limited edition digital art. An artist uploads a submission to the startup’s website, and, if accepted, 23Vivi makes 23 copies of the piece and attempts to sell them on its marketplace. Buyers receive encoded certificates of authenticity, which are created using blockchain encryption techniques. Why 23? Founder and CEO QuHarrison Terry says the number is an “enigma” and one of its possible meanings is “life or death.” He says “vivi” is the Italian word for “live,” though it also stands for “Victory is Very Illuminating,” according to company materials. Nobody said art was straightforward.
