P.R., U.S, Europe, LatAm startups pitch to investors
Startups from Puerto Rico and the rest of the world participated in the first edition of Parallel18’s Demo Day.
Local company Gasolina Móvil and Spanish Human Resources solution Talentank were two of the startups recognized for their pitches to investors during international accelerator Parallel18’s first Demo Day, held recently.
In the event, companies explained how their businesses work, talked about their financial data and future plans, as well as the amount of investment they’re looking for.
Some of the best pitches of Parallel18’s Demo Day were:
Gasolina Móvil — The “Investor’s Choice” at Demo Day, Gasolina Móvil is a product for online gas payment that keeps you steer clear of those lines at the station. the The free app for the service launched 11 months ago, can be downloaded both for Android and iOS users. Since joining Parallel18, the company has developed three products and are currently seeking connections to expand to Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and beyond.
Sunne Cleantech Lab — This startup from Puerto Rico wants to design products to accelerate the adoption of energy saving technologies. To solve the problem of the tackiness, discomfort and lack of practicality of old solar heaters, they created the Sunne Water Heater, a one-piece small solar water heater that can be installed on almost every ceiling. With its futuristic look, the Sunne Heater has already caused international buzz in publications like Refinery29 and BBC. They are looking for capital to grow their business from online sales to distribution with contractors.
Ebrolis — This personalized notifications service that sends “ebook” deals caters to the Spanish speaking market. Since joining Parallel18, the literary startup has grown to 60,000 subscribers and has achieved deals with Amazon and Casa del Libro bookstores from Spain. Indie authors have praised Ebrolis for helping them gain new readers.
School Climate Solutions — The content-based startup impressed the panel of judges with its strategy to tackle bullying, cyber-bullying and mental health in the school environment. Founded by two clinical psychologists, School Climate Solutions creates multimedia resources and bilingual content for schools. The company targets its services to personnel, students and parents, showing them how to deal with a bullying scenario. The results have produced a 50 percent decrease in bullying presented by their clients, the company said. The educational startup seeks funding to grow its team, create more content and expand its marketing initiative.
Talentank — Promoting the love culture by helping companies build teams of employees who love what they do and share core values, Talent Tank presented itself as the essential human resources startup. By using algorithms, Talentank creates profiles with values in common and then provides that data to recruiters. Its purpose is to help clients achieve a happy workplace environment and a solid business. With clients like Toyota and IBM in its portfolio, Talentank has an employee-centric philosophy that “makes them innovators in the human resources technology industry,” P18 said.
P18 is an international accelerator for high-impact innovative enterprises that want to scale their businesses from Puerto Rico. It offers a $40,000 grant, mentoring, support and training, and workspace for five months, as well as access to valuable networks to help them scale into international markets.
Those who decide to stay in Puerto Rico, once the program ends, may be eligible for a follow-on fund of up to $75,000 to match investment raised from private sources.
The program selects up to 40 companies twice a year. They must meet these basic criteria: be innovative; have three years or less of established business practice; be past the concept stage and have validated sales or product in addition to being scaleable globally.
