As we know, necessity is the mother of invention, and COVID-19 has already been called the father of an innovation boom. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so the agile companies are accelerating and pushing things forward. In addition, there are already several accelerators that focus on startups that help address the coronavirus pandemic. Of course, there are COVID-19 prompted wild and crazy ideas, but we will be focusing more on the ones, which are more realistic and useful. In times of social distancing, there are technological solutions that will be more relevant than others.
10 most prominent startups of COVID-19 period
Co-train.space
The application launched by Dmitry Ulyanov has already been featured on ProductHunt. It solves two problems at once – communication and physical activity. Users can pick any YouTube video with a workout they’d like to try and invite their friends. Then they will simultaneously see the video and each other on the screen and can start a joint training. It is a perfect solution for people who want to keep active, but it is hard for them to train at home alone. Training buddy will motivate them to stay on an active track. First users have already appreciated the UX, and the overall feedback was positive.
Lunchclub
The project was launched in September last year, at the same time its creators received $4 million from Andreessen Horowitz. But it took off precisely in the period of the coronacrisis. This startup is a great networking tool. It helps to conduct “useful” online lunches and expand your professional circle of friends. If you need to attract financing, find a partner, or “have a brainstorm with a team” – Lunchclub is your choice.
Carbon Health
Smart, hasslefree healthcare system which connects independent practices with a unified technology platform. It allows doctors to easily handle patient intake, telemedicine, texting, billing, and records sharing. While mobile apps let patients find and chat with doctors and health teams, book same day appointments instantly, have their complete medical record digitalized. Patients can have their prescribed medicine delivered to their doorstep. No contact delivery is very relevant now, especially for sick people.
Skycell
SkyCell is a developer of “smart containers” which maintain constant storage conditions for drugs that must be at a certain temperature and humidity. A startup from Switzerland has already raised $62 million from MVM Partners.
Biza Company
Garbage removal directly from your home or apartment. Just download the application, leave the bag outside the door, and your garbage will be taken care of. The idea is interesting, but we doubt that timing is right, considering that for a lot of people now, it is the only legitimate reason to go outside besides grocery shopping.
Checkly
A Berlin-based startup developing a platform for monitoring and testing raised a round of $2.25 million from investors led by Accel. This SaaS platform allows developers to control their APIs and web applications – and alerts you when something goes wrong. A transaction monitoring tool makes it easy to check interactions with websites without the necessity to write any code. How is it related to coronavirus? For many businesses that switched to remote work, the question arose – how to monitor the correct operation of payments, forms, and carts on sites. This convenient startup allows you to set up such tracking
Halo
Workplace distance and contact tracker launched by electrical worker safety startup. Halo is a wrist-worn gadget, which can be set up and implemented quickly and effortlessly, and doesn’t require connection with or setup through any smartphone to operate. This gentle device reminds workers to keep a 2-meter social distance, even when focused on tasks. It’s worth mentioning that location tracking doesn’t take place, and staff privacy is kept. The bracelet price is $100, delivery starts on May 4th.
Tomorrow Health
A few days ago, a startup raised a $7.5 million seed round from Andreessen Horowitz. The goal of the startup is to resolve issues and problems arising from home treatment. The company seeks to simplify the process of providing patients at home with such important products as walkers and wheelchairs, ventilation, and other respiratory devices. The company connects insurance companies with customers to ensure a transparent process for the purchase and maintenance of medical equipment and supplies.
Rokid Detention Glasses
Rokid, a Chinese AI startup, has been developing AR/VR glasses since 2014, but now technology is used to fight the coronavirus pandemic, which has greatly affected the country’s economy. Besides monitoring the temperature, smart glasses also offer IoT and software solutions for facial recognition and data management. Rokid uses a B2B sales model in the USA market. T1’s primary task is to help businesses, hospitals, and law enforcement with COVID-19 detection.
Magic Kids
An educational application for children appeared in late March and has already received $120 thousand at the pre-seed stage. A startup combines augmented reality and artificial intelligence, so children can interact and learn in a world that they see every day.
Non-profit organizations and initiatives
Poptotheshop
A non-profit startup originated from Mckinsey and Tidde, was created with the support of the CanDo venture capital fund. The platform connects people on self-isolation and volunteers who help to buy and deliver the necessary goods from local stores.
RemoteJobs
Job board for remote workers. It is a fresh timely take on the job hunting market. It is built for mobile and is updated hourly. In addition, it has a great social media presence (Twitter and Instagram) and advertisement. This platform is quickly becoming the leading job board due to scraping from multiple job boards, and the users love it for the service and personalized emails.
Parachute
There are a lot of layoff lists online, but Parachute serves as a consolidated list of all employees laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is precise, current, and easy to filter. It is questionable if this quick access is data secure, but the creators aimed to make the product as approachable as possible.
Code Against COVID-19
A global initiative of software developers who want to help to flatten the pandemic curve. The creators believe that coding can really make a difference. Here are a few of their products: virus tracking, real-time mask inventory, etc.
COVID-19 & Wearables Open Data Research
Welltory launched the project to identify diagnostic patterns of people who contracted coronavirus. The app tracks the progression of disease symptoms and recovery. Participation in the study is completely anonymous.
COVID-19 Innovation Map
Visualized database outlining solutions for the pandemic. This map uses an algorithm rating the top 20 most COVID-19 inventive cities and countries. So far 3 US cities are leading: San Francisco, Boston, and New York.
Startups pop up when someone sees a problem that they don’t feel is being solved properly in the marketplace, so they risk big time to solve it. Add this to the general public’s recent wake-up call that they need to adapt, try out different things, and explore new ways of distributing their product. Startups that drive innovation and development during the COVID-19 pandemic are mostly related to healthcare and remote lifestyle tools. It is definitely the silver lining in the cloud of coronacrisis.
