At the Founder Institute, we believe that our reach should always exceed our grasp, because this is how we achieve the impossible.
Since we first launched in 2009, this philosophy has extended to our Graduates, who have gone on to reach some pretty impressive milestones year after year in every corner of the globe.
And 2017 was no different.
In 2017, the Founder Institute has been in more cities than ever before, supporting aspiring entrepreneurs the world over. However, our global triumphs pale in comparison to the success of our Graduates. Over the past year, we’ve seen companies that started out as mere ideas before becoming machines of change, fueled by the creativity, innovation, and dedication of their Founders.
Below are just a few of our Graduates who have made major strides in achieving the impossible in 2017 throughout the world:
Africa
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Cinetpay (Graduate of the Abidjan Founder Institute)
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Cinetpay is a mobile money payment platform that helps ecommerce companies, restaurant, stores, and mobile apps to receive mobile money payment. They recently won Seedstars Abidjan 2017, and will compete at Seedstars World.
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Ovamba (Graduate of the Johannesburg Founder Institute)
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Ovamba is a P2P platform that matches investors who want to lend to African SMEs. This year, they were one of the winners at the 2017 Benzinga Global Fintech Awards in the “Best Under-banked or Emerging Market Solution” category.
Asia
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Appota (Graduate of the Hanoi Founder Institute)
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Appota is a mobile content distribution platform that allows developers and game publishers to effectively distribute their content to the Vietnam mobile user population. Appota raised a successful Series C round at a $50 million valuation, marking their total funding at $10 million.
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Hoayeuthuong (Graduate of the Ho Chi Minh City Founder Institute)
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Hoayeuthuong is a website that provides flower services and professional gifts for every occasion. They recently received $500k in funding from international flower distributor Greenwings, which will help Hoayeuthuong expand its network across Vietnam and Cambodia by 2018.
Australia
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Checkbox (Graduate of the Sydney Founder Institute)
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Checkbox is a platform that allows subject-matter experts to build decision-tree driven software without touching a single line of code. This year, they received the RegTech of the Year Award from the Minister for Industry, Innovation, and Science, and will represent Australia at the Startup World Cup in San Francisco after winning the annual pitching competition at the StartCon conference in Sydney.
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Passel (Graduate of the Melbourne Founder Institute)
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Passel is an online delivery service designed to help retailers gain more sales by crowdsourcing the last mile. Despite having only officially launched a few months ago, Passel was featured as one of the “40 Top Melbourne Startups To Watch in 2017” by local news outlet, The Martec; partnered with children’s clothing brand Purebaby; and was listed as a Startup Stars finalist by The Weekly Review.
Canada
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Intelocate (Graduate of the Toronto Founder Institute)
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Intelocate is a powerful and collaborative way to plan, launch, communicate and connect all layers of multi-location business operations and projects. Intelocate won a $100K investment from ResolveTO’s pitch competition - before they even officially launched.
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Lean Systems (Graduate of the Montreal Founder Institute)
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Lean Systems makes a schedule optimizer to help fleet managers reduce their operations costs. The company won the Canada “Young Entrepreneur of the Year” Award, and was selected for the prestigious Techstars New York accelerator program. Their total funding is currently $100,000.
Europe
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Beonprice (Graduate of the Madrid Founder Institute)
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Beonprice is a real-time dynamic pricing system, initially focused on the lodging industry, helping hotel revenue managers rent the maximum number of rooms for the optimal price. Beonprice raised over $1.5 million, as they expand to the UK, Germany, and the US, and now currently have 1500 clients and are opening three new offices.
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TravelCar (Graduate of the Paris Founder Institute)
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TravelerCar is a P2P platform that allows travelers to not only save money on airport parking, but also makes them earn money while they are traveling by renting their car to other traveler. TravelCar raised over $15 million (bringing their total funding to over $22 million) as they expanded into the US, and currently has over 400 agencies in more than 30 countries around the world.
India
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Cityrene (Graduate of the Chennai Founder Institute)
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Cityrene builds smart sustainable homes in just 90 days using GFRG (Glass Fiber Reinforced Gypsum) technology. This year, they were recognized by Startup India’s Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, and already completed its first project of five apartments in Kovalam, Chennai.
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Watsan (Graduate of the Chennai Founder Institute)
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Watsan makes affordable, maintenance free, electricity free water purifiers and turnkey solutions to make toilets faster using green technology. Watsan received a grant from the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE), London for the company’s water research.
LATAM
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Contraktor (Graduate of the Curitiba Founder Institute)
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Contraktor helps SME's handle their legal documents, offering online tools for contract assembly, managing and workflow. The company reached the milestone of R$100M in contracts under management, and also raised $450,000 this year.
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Mass Labs (Graduate of the Sao Paulo Founder Institute)
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MASS Labs develops solutions that seamlessly combines intelligence and automation to achieve cost savings and reduce losses. This year, Mass Labs became the first software company in Brazil that is enabled for electronic ticketing, fiscal, and online sales.
USA - East Coast
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Better Weekdays (Graduate of the Chicago Founder Institute)
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Better Weekdays is a career management platform that helps universities improve the job placement outcomes of its graduates, allowing them to maintain government funding. In 2017, they received $200k in funding (bringing their total funding to $1.5 million) from St. Louis County’s Helix Fund, a $1.5M venture fund that exclusively invests in St. Louis startups.
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SimpleReach (Graduate of the New York Founder Institute)
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SimpleReach provides content creators with universal measurement and optimized distribution for all their content campaigns. The company has recently raised $9 million this year, bringing their total funding to $24 million.
USA - West Coast
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Kangarootime (Graduate of the Los Angeles Founder Institute)
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Kangarootime helps child care professionals with a cloud-based mobile application that collects payments, automates check-in and check-out, and streamlines communication. They were named a top 8 finalist at 43North and won $500k, bringing their total funding to over a million dollars.
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RealtyMogul (Graduate of the Los Angeles Founder Institute)
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Realty Mogul is an an online marketplace for accredited investors to pool money and buy shares of pre-vetted investment properties. RealtyMogul recently won the Gold Stevie Award in the Consumer Services category during the 14th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business. To date, RealtyMogul has raised more than $46 million.
