From platforms for medical tourism to drones for automatic inventory checks, there were lots of startups presenting and exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt today. Here are 6 of them that I thought were really cool from those that presented at the Startup Battlefield today:
1. TallyGo: Navigation as a service that can be embedded into any app via SDK.
Why another GPS / navigation service, you ask, when there’s Google, Waze and Apple Maps?
Well, this one uses thousands of road sensors in each city to determine how many cars are on a certain street right now, how fast they are moving, etc. This is much more accurate than data collected from smartphones, according to their research. And they should know – they have been doing this for more than 10 years as part of the USC research team.
It also avoids the competitive conflict arising from startups using Google / Waze, who could be their competitors in future.
2. Intelligent Flying Machines: autonomous drones to automate inventory counting in warehouses
These drones can count inventory in a standard sized warehouse in 20 minutes – something which would take upto a week using current, manual methods.
3. Wazer: water jet cutting for hobbyists
Wazer is the first desktop waterjet that can cut hard materials like metal, glass and stone into precise shapes.
It has applications beyond 3D printers, since those can only print in plastics, and laser cutters since those can only process softer materials like paper, wood and plastics.
They launched a kickstarter that has already proven quite successful.
4. EverlyWell: in-home medical test kits that can be mailed for online test results.
They avoid the issues that have plagued Theranos by conducting their tests through regulated, approved third-party labs, and publishing all data transparently.
5. MedRepublic: platform for medical tourism
MedRepublic has created a platform for medical tourism, bringing in upfront, fixed pricing for most common procedures, and ratings and reviews of doctors, thus bridging the trust factor that makes patients hesitate before opting for surgery abroad. These procedures when done abroad can lead to average savings of 60-75% over the US prices.
6. Unify ID: multi-factor biometric authentication
Last but not least, Unify ID, currently one of the favorites of the startup competition, uses multiple different biometric as well as other sensor data, like the way you walk / move, the devices you use, how you type, etc. to determine that it is indeed you who that is asking for access.
There were a lot of other cool startups as well there, which I hope to cover tomorrow – stay tuned for updates!
For comprehensive, realtime news on Disrupt 2016, go to: https://techcrunch.com/tag/disrupt-sf-2016/
