St. Louis, Missouri, has much to offer in the historical and cultural scene. The Lou has also become a rising star for tech job growth. Check out the 12 St. Louis companies and top startups we cherry-picked.
The most recognizable symbol of St. Louis, Missouri, is the Gateway Arch. The landmark commemorates the city's role and nickname as the "Gateway to the West" in the 19th century.
Some could argue that its claim to fame is the 1904 World's Fair, steamboats, or the Anheuser-Busch Brewery.
Whatever your choice, St. Louis has a rich historical and cultural heritage. All that said, St. Louis, has much more to offer in the tech scene than they get credit for.
Listen to the Podcast Episode Featuring the Top St. Louis Startups
It has seen impressive growth in tech startups since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is partly due to federal and state efforts and partly to the affordable cost of living. Housing is 27% lower than the national average, making St. Louis an attractive place to live.
Here are 12 St. Louis companies steaming their way towards tech startup success.
Top St. Louis Startups to Watch in 2022
Gathering audience insights allow brands to identify their ideal customer and craft a laser-targeted marketing strategy. While collecting data from online sources is easy enough, offline is another issue. Advocado provides all the data St. Louis companies need to engage with their target audience.
Advocado is a data-as-as-service platform for understanding consumer behavior and building organic digital audiences. It provides cross-media data connecting offline and online audience insights to help businesses influence the customer journey through strategic ads. The goal is to integrate data from TV ads and in-store visits with website and online store data to deliver actionable insights.
Advocado uses signals in the physical world via patented watermark technology, automated content recognition, and natural language processing. It considers real-time weather to analyze, generate, integrate, and activate data and drive better performance. In addition, it is the first platform to use these signals to trigger real-time actions across online media and marketplaces.
In other words, the platform helps fill visibility gaps for advertisers, marketing agencies, and media companies. They can use the data to target and effectively adjust their spending in real-time.
Finally, Advocado helps CMOs and marketing leaders deliver better results and break down organizational silos while safeguarding consumer privacy. It operates under founder CEO Brian Handrigan and President Jeff Linihan.
The company has raised $12.5 million in six funding rounds from three investors since its founding in 2017. The latest funding was a Series A round on December 15, 2021.
Contact centers are the lifeblood of many companies. It is typically the point of first contact for potential customers and the go-to source for information and after-sales service. However, 91% of consumers report having a bad experience with customer service.
Most contact centers have the insights they need to drive better conversations. Unfortunately, there has been no way to help the agent execute them. Balto ensures your contact center performs well in real-time.
Balto is an AI-powered real-time guidance platform specifically for contact centers for St. Louis companies. It increases conversions and decreases ramp time through its trifecta of products.
These are Real-Time Guidance, Real-Time Coaching, and Real-Time QA. The platform prevents costly compliance mistakes and improves the customer's experience.
Balto has guided many contact centers, including National General Insurance, eHealth, American Homes for Rent, and RingCentral. It has monitored more than 125 million conversations worldwide and increased sales of clients by 26%.
Founders CEO Marc Bernstein and COO Chris Kontes are at the helm of Balto. Under their guidance, it has acquired $51.9M in five funding rounds from 15 investors since 2017. Its latest funding was a Series B round on August 19, 2021.
Located in the heart of the Midwest, St. Louis is a great place to hold large-scale events. In 2021, it hosted eight such events, collectively attended by more than 60,000 people. However, organizing such events is difficult even for big companies. There are many moving parts that involve a lot of information. Event companies can benefit from using Curate to automate many tasks.
Curate is a software platform for event companies and professionals, helping them organize all the information needed to make events more profitable. It is an automation tool intended to make event planning and operations more efficient, allowing the management of multiple events.
The platform automatically creates professional-looking proposals based on a potential client's requirements, which reduces time and effort. The client's information in a Curate form goes directly into an interactive proposal. Then, they can view, sign, and pay for a proposal instantly.
Curate also organizes the shopping list to increase efficiency and prevent over-ordering supplies and rentals. Users can price consistently for a profit with custom recipes that automatically turn into supplier orders without requiring time-consuming calculations. As a result, Curate users report a 400% increase in bookings and a 10% increase in revenues by minimizing waste.
Additionally, Curate automates most of the paperwork associated with organizing an event. Event companies and professionals can spend more time with current and hopeful clients.
Curate is in the capable hands of CEO and Founder Ryan O'Neil and CTO Ryan Gatewood. Under their leadership, Curate has acquired $4.2 million in three funding rounds from six investors since its founding. Its latest funding was a Venture-Series Unknown round on September 21, 2021.
The trucking industry is critical to the US economy, but inefficient operations can eat into profits. Trucking company teams need to consider load tenders and customer commitments. They also need to balance a fleet of assets and plan loads. It is very challenging for St. Louis companies to make the most profitable decisions consistently. Freight Science makes it easier to make better operational decisions faster.
Freight Science is a data science platform designed to optimize operations for the trucking industry, increasing efficiency, and profitability. This St. Louis tech startup uses advanced data science models to address asset-based trucking companies' operational needs. In other words, Freight Science automates logistics for large asset carriers, enabling them to respond to changing market conditions.
The platform builds mathematical models of the entire system, including objection functions and operational constraints, to achieve the most optimal outcomes. The objective is to augment human decision-making in operational functions, such as account management, planning, and customer service. It runs on scalable cloud computing power and seamlessly integrates decisions into existing systems.
Freight Science operates under the leadership of CEO Matt Foster and Chief Data Science Officer and co-founder Adrian Cartier. The company closed $4 million in a Venture-Series Unknown round on May 26, 2022.
ESports refers to organized video gaming tournaments and events where professional, and amateur players compete. The audience is more than 500 million worldwide and had a market value of $1.36 billion in 2021. Mission Control is getting in on the action from the mobile app up.
Mission Control developed a B2B Gaming Community Engagement Platform where eSports organizers can create gaming leagues for top games such as FIFA and Fortnite. Players and gaming communities can use the mobile app to compete as friends or join their chosen league.
The role of Mission Control is to manage administrative tasks, such as scheduling games, validating scores, and determining the winners. The platform also provides a forum for friends and league members to connect.
Mission Control aims to gather and grow communities through recreational video gaming. The most common organizers are churches, parks and recreation departments, nonprofits, card and game shops, and college clubs. It is also an excellent option for companies to organize team-building activities.
The platform also benefits organizations in expanding recreational offerings, connecting with their local community, and creating new revenue streams. You can create and host a league for as little as $55/month for up to 40 active users.
The creators of Mission Control include CEO Austin Miles Smith and Chief Customer Officer G. Byron Abrigg. Under their leadership, the platform has acquired $1.8 million in two funding rounds from six investors since 2018. Its latest funding was a Seed round on July 21, 2020.
Everyone wants something unique, but that isn't always possible when you buy products online. Customily helps online sellers change that.
Customily is an e-commerce personalization platform that customers can use to customize their online product offerings. Online stores can add tailored options for their customers, such as text, logos, textures, images, maps, and clipart. Customers can get a sneak peek of their personalization before buying.
The platform integrates with many e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, and even Walmart. St. Louis companies and online sellers can also receive a ready-to-print, engrave, or embroider file for every order and connect directly with Print-on-Demand (POD) providers to automate fulfillment.
Customily is the brainchild of CEO Alejandro Lozdziejski and Martina Möring.
Social media has become a critical factor in marketing and customer engagement. Nearly all (96%) of small businesses use it to create brand awareness, boost engagement, and sell products. Three-quarters of marketers also attribute increased traffic to social media marketing. Denim Social optimizes these efforts for regulated industries.
Denim Social is a software-as-a-service platform empowering marketers for banking, mortgage, insurance, and wealth management companies. It helps them comply with regulations while managing organic social media content and paid social media advertising.
The platform handles the entire social media marketing experience designed for these regulated industries. It creates and delivers compelling social media content and simplifies the advertising process. It also helps marketers build no-code and scalable landing pages in just a few minutes.
The goal of the platforms is to engage and deepen relationships with the target audience without breaking any rules. As a result, Denim Social is the only platform for social media management endorsed by the American Banking Association for banks and financial services.
Denim Social is under the leadership of CEO Douglas Wilber and CTO Charles Turri. The company has acquired $8.8 million in four funding rounds from two investors since 2020. Its latest funding was a Series B round on October 8, 2021.
Construction is not just about building things. Like any business, there are many moving parts that require data sharing, coordination, and decision-making. Ryvit helps stakeholders in the construction industry meet their unique challenges through integration software.
Ryvit developed the first integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) for the construction industry. It is a hub for building and maintaining data flow between software for Architectural Engineering and Construction (AEC) companies instead of building an IT department to do the same.
The software integrates applications using connectors for enterprise resource products, social apps, e-commerce, customer relationship management, and industry-specific systems. Connectors are codeless internal system components that connect touchpoint systems using various protocols, such as HTTP, SMTP, and FTP.
Ryvit uses development resources more efficiently through automation and optimization of the applications. The iPaaS focuses on helping finance, project, and payroll teams get the information to make better decisions and move quickly. The goal is to increase the ability of construction company leaders to leverage technology and gain a competitive advantage.
The company operates under CEO Tom Stemm and CTO Chris Collins. Ryvit has acquired $3.5 million in four funding rounds from seven investors since its founding. Its latest funding was a Seed round on October 22, 2019.
Web 3.0 is exciting a lot of interest among fans of decentralization. However, most people don't understand what it is, let alone feel confident about putting money into an enterprise built on Web 3.0 technology. yWhales wants to change that.
yWhales is a community-based ecosystem of industry leaders and entrepreneurs who believe Web 3.0 will shape the world. They build, advise, and invest in Web 3.0 St. Louis companies, shedding light on the business side of Web 3.0. Their mission and vision are to bring awareness, education, and opportunities to communities and establish a global basis of trust.
Anyone can join the yWhales community because it has the fundamental belief that people are at the heart of Web 3.0. It forges connections so members can share their experiences and learn from each other.
Among the founders of yWhales are CEO Jay Steinback and Chief of Staff Mia Murphy. Founded in 2021, the startup acquired $5 million in a Seed round on June 1, 2022.
Don't you get frustrated when you come across a great article, and a paywall blocks your access? Invisibly provides a way to unlock paywalls through data.
Many companies pay good money to get user data, yet the users themselves don't benefit. Consequently, Invisibly developed an app that lets users earn from the data they share to access ad-free premium content.
The data-economy concept is simple yet revolutionary. Users can download the Invisibly app and start earning points. They can share data, answer surveys, refer friends, and so on for points. The company calls this a data dividend.
Each action has a corresponding point value, and users can use these points to access content on the app. They can also opt to convert points to US currency at 100 points to $1.
Users could also choose to license the use of their data to companies and advertisers for a fee. They can link to as many data sources as they want to share when they opt-in, such as social media or bank transaction records.
Invisibly informs partner companies as they pay license fees for the data they want to use for marketing. Users could earn about $60 a year using this data licensing model but may go as high as $1,000 by 2023.
Founded by CEO Jim McKelvey and Dan Lohman, Invisibly seeks to establish an ethical benchmark for data collection and use. The company closed $20.2 million in a Series A round on January 24, 2019.
Many Americans love the outdoors. When they buy outdoor recreational products, 76% do their research online. Additionally, about half (56%) of their purchases in this sector are also online. Rollick aims to help manufacturers and dealers improve their sales through marketing and technology solutions.
Rollick is a relationship technology provider for the Powersports, RV, and Marine industries. It helps manufacturers and dealers improve the customer buying experience from pre-purchase through repurchase.
The provider connects OEMs, dealers, finance companies, and insurance providers with in-market consumers. The marketing and technology solutions offered include marketing automation, enterprise lead management, new customer acquisition, and customer experience and loyalty.
Rollick has also launched GoRollick Sell, an outdoor recreational vehicle marketplace for a network of dealers, manufacturers, and partner networks. The platform provides access to a high-quality customer base of over 250 million. These include policyholders of major insurance providers, employees at over 2,000 top companies, first responders, and military members.
Additionally, its National-to-Local digital marketing and Aimbase technology help manufacturers and dealers attract, convert, and retain more customers. Rollick provides a complete view of the customer journey by measuring dealer network performance. This helps to generate higher-quality leads and allows dealers to quote and respond to leads quickly. It also measures post-sale customer satisfaction to influence repurchase behavior.
The goal of Rollick is to create an excellent customer experience in the outdoor recreational product market. As a result of its innovations, Rollick has achieved 620% in three-year revenue growth. It received a place in the 2022 Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the US.
Rollick is under the leadership of CEO Bernie Brenner, chief revenue officer, and co-founder Jason Nierman. The company has acquired $22.4 million in three funding rounds and 13 investors since 2017. Its latest funding was a Venture-Series Unknown round on March 1, 2021.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is fast becoming the go-to technology for customer support, but its application has not always been optimal. Capacity seeks to leverage the potential of AI to deliver excellent customer service without human intervention.
Capacity is an AI-enabled support automation platform for SaaS companies, connecting their entire customer support tech stack. It connects apps, collates documents, and integrates an organization's knowledge base. As a result, it makes all the data instantly accessible via chat.
The goal is to enable the automated system to answer questions, perform repetitive support tasks, and create solutions. Capacity helps St. Louis companies answer customers' questions 90% of the time without human intervention using its flexible database. The no-code/low-code conversational AI platform also enables seamless human redirects and efficient task management.
The platform improves efficiency and saves time by intercepting questions and providing immediate responses, reducing helpdesk support tickets. It also minimizes manual and repetitive workflows through its advanced robotic processing automation. As a result, it allows development and support teams to focus more on work and innovation.
Capacity offers best-in-class encryption and complete data privacy. The platform is CCPA, HIPAA, SOC 2, and GDPR-compliant. Consequently, they have a rapidly growing customer base in the financial services, mortgage lending, human resources, healthcare, and education sectors. These include Newell Brands, West Community Credit Union, USA Mortgage, Maryville University, Total Access Urgent Care, Framecad, EXL, and more.
This St. Louis-based company operates under founder CEO David Karandish and CTO Bob Benedict. Under their leadership, it has acquired $61.5 million in five funding rounds from three investors since 2017. Capacity's latest funding was a Series C round on January 19, 2022.
St. Louis Startups Drive Midwest Innovation
St. Louis is moving beyond its rich historical past, looking towards the future through tech startups and innovations. The 12 St. Louis companies on our list may not all be the biggest or most funded in their niche yet, but they all impressively seek to break new ground within their prospective industries.
If you want to learn about top startups in other cities, check out our list here!
At Startup Hustle, we love meeting people who think outside the box. If you are a true-blue trailblazer and hustler in the entrepreneurial space, we would love to hear from you. Give us a call, and tell us what you’re working on!
If you are also interested in building a stronger software development team quickly and affordably, we can help there! Our parent company, Full Scale, joins the 2022 Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest-growing companies in the US. Reach out to us and learn what we can do for you and your growing team!
