Austin—A group of early stage startups pitched to a movie theater full of attorneys, investors, and others in the Austin, TX startup world for a chance to win funding from the Central Texas Angel Network, ATX Seed Ventures, Aquila Commercial, and Corsa Ventures.
Of the 10 pitches, one winner was picked: Well Beyond Care, an online service that connects people who need care for elderly family members with caregivers. The final terms of the investment haven’t been finalized and will depend on how many members of the angel network, known as CTAN, invest, but the groups expected the investment to be around $125,000 of an equity investment, and $25,000 of in-kind prizes from local law firms and groups like Capital Factory. The local chapter of the Rice Alliance hosted the event.
Well Beyond Care uses an algorithm to match families with caregivers to make sure they’re the right fit, something typically performed by an agency that charges an hourly fee and pays the caregiver a portion of that, according to co-founder Jeffrey Fry. These positions can pay between $8 to $8.50 an hour require traveling far distances, Fry said, which can lead to truancy and turnover. [Disclosure: Fry is a family friend of this reporter.]
Well Beyond Care offers GPS tracking and a check-in system to tackle that, connects caregivers to families who are near one another, and charges a smaller fee than agencies, Fry contends, allowing for higher pay to caregivers. The company plans to add mobile apps, and wanted to use the funding to further develop its product.
“The caregiver my mother had left for a 25-cent per hour increase,” Fry said. “I said to myself—after WTF—there’s money in those hills.”
The other pitches came from:
Anderson Remplex: A company with a technology that uses cold plasma to clean food, killing bacteria, fungi, and other microbes without harming the stuff we eat.
Cingo: a customer service app targeting mobile users.
HipPocket: a real estate marketing and communication app.
Homads: a marketplace for renting homes on a monthly basis, targeting companies who might consider it over corporate housing.
Renovate Simply: a service that connects users with contractors for home repair and remodel, and provides estimates. The company wanted the funding to start a new marketplace that tracks payments between contractors and subcontracts, working directly with banks.
SandBox Commerce: a company that helps small- and mid-size businesses develop their own mobile app.
Shower Stream: the maker of a device that allows shower water to heat up, without having the water run too long.
SigTrack: a company that works with the computer chip design verification process.
Yip Yap: The maker of a mobile device for young children.
