2018 Early Stage Angel Conference Announcement of Presenting Companies

Tampa and Miami, FL – May 1, 2018 The Florida Venture Forum has selected 20 companies to present at its 11th annual 2018 Florida Early Stage Angel Capital Conference being held at the Westshore Grand in Tampa on May 18, 2018.

“This year, the Forum is celebrating its 11th year hosting the Early Stage Angel Capital Conference which continues to grow and has become one of the largest and most important gatherings of angel and early stage investors in the state,” said Jennifer Dunham, partner at Arsenal Venture Partners, chair of the conference selection committee and a board member of the Florida Venture Forum. “Access to early stage capital is critical to the commercialization of new ideas that have market potential. This year, we again received a record number of applications from high quality early stage companies statewide and around the country.”

In addition to company presentations and other programming, the Conference will provide a total of $50,000 in cash awards presented to two winning companies, courtesy of Space Florida. Past early stage presenters have attracted more than $80 million in funding.

Pre-registration for the Early Stage Capital Conference is available through May 14, 2018. Conference attendees have the opportunity to listen to pitches from leading Florida companies and network with approximately 300 attendees including investors.  On May 17, 2018, conference attendees are invited to also pre-register for the Understanding Cap Tables Workshop, taught by lead instructor, Troy Knauss, of the Angel Resource Institute.

Presenters were selected from a pool of over 150 applicants by a committee of active Florida venture capitalists and investors. Selected companies will present to an audience of investors, other deal professionals and entrepreneurs.  The 20 selected presenting companies are listed below, by region:

Central/East Central Florida

Antibiotic Adjuvant, Gainesville (www.antibioticadjuvant.com), at the physician level, they provide tools to optimize antibiotic use at point of prescription. At the facility level, they coordinate antibiotic use, improve nurse prescriber communication, and adapt in real-time to changes in the facility’s microbiome to reduce antibiotic resistance. By using machine learning, they predict resistant infections, complications, and resistance patterns. The direct result is improved patient outcomes, fewer complications on infections, shorter length of stay, and less cost.

Docity Health, Orlando (www.docity.com) offers on demand access to local healthcare providers through our telehealth and hardware solutions. They partner with local broadband and internet service providers to offer our solution to customers around the country on a subscription basis.

Sanvis Health, Melbourne (www.sanvishealth.com) is focused on taming the considerable operational CHAOS that jeopardizes care for the seniors and increases the financial burden and risk for Assisted Living (AL) operators. Driven by the vision of healthier, socially connected and longer living seniors, Sanvis empowers professional care givers to consistently provide outstanding care while exponentially increasing their productivity.

Sensatek Propulsion Technology, Inc., Daytona Beach (www.sensatek.com),provides real-time information in harsh environments by deploying a Next-Gen Wireless Instrumentation System that enables asset optimization in Power Generation, Transportation, and Space Launch Systems, presenting a $200 Billion U.S. Market Opportunity across 2 million assets.

Tomahawk Robotics, Melbourne (www.tomahawkrobotics.com) their team has a broad set of skills/experience covering all aspects of mobile robotic systems. Demonstrated expertise in designing and building hardware in the form of mobile robots (underwater/tracked/wheeled), walking robots, snake robots, and dual arm manipulation systems for US government and commercial customers (rugged, reliable, all-weather conditions).

Southeast Florida

BabySparks LLC, Coral Gables (www.babysparks.com),gives parents and professional caregivers a powerful tool to support their children's specific development needs. Their adaptive technology learns about each child's specific needs and provides parents with an optimized daily program to support them through meaningful play.

Gridics, Miami (www.gridics.com) is short for Grid Analytics and is focused on developing groundbreaking applications for the real estate space. By combining disparate data sets with quantitative modeling and 3D renderings, Gridics delivers the tools and insights for cities and real estate professionals to enhance their workflow. Whether one wants to quickly identify development opportunities or visualize large-scale planning and zoning decisions, Gridics will help save time and money.

Hubspring Health LLC, Miami (www.Hubspring.com) is a multi-platform cloud-based communication and resource management solution. The Hub allows providers to easily access contact information for the care team and hospital facilities, look up clinical protocols, on-call schedules and much more. The Hub’s fully integrated communication suite enables users to easily connect with members of care teams using its HIPAA-compliant secure platform.

Papa, Miami (www.joinpapa.com) provides on-demand assistance and an incredible social experience to seniors. Our primary focus is to help cure loneliness by pairing seniors with amazing college students that we call Papa Pals. They are super social and provide transportation, house help, teach tech, run errands, grocery shop, and more. They are like Grandkids On-demand! We offer our services to consumers and group organizations.

Ridgeback Network Defense, Inc., Boca Raton (www.ridgebacknet.com) Ridgeback's cybersecurity software was invented by a 25 year cyber veteran of the US DoD and intelligence community in response to the vulnerability of networks to lateral movement. Ridgeback makes the network environment extremely hostile to the adversary to repel attacks. Ridgeback also triggers automatic countermeasures to expel intruders, defeat malware and also insider threats in real time - not after the fact.

Squeeze, LLC, Boca Raton (www.squeeze.com),is a one-stop comparison platform that brings pricing clarity to recurring bills, empowering consumers to shop, discover and compare rate value on just about anything. From mortgages to mobile plans, their technology analyzes and compares hundreds of offers from top vendors empowering users to make intelligent buying decisions based on accurate market pricing.

Switchboard Live, Boca Raton (www.switchboard.live) is a B2B SaaS company that enables users to live stream video across multiple social media destinations (Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, etc.), currently accomplished only by using via multiple camera set ups or cobbling together more technically clunky, expensive solutions. Users send their video to Switchboard Live and they handle the distribution with a few clicks.

VuPulse, Boca Raton (www.vupulse.com) is a B2B Customer Data Platform (CDP) SaaS company that stores and analyzes customer shopping, listening and viewing preference behavior in the cloud. Their CDP currently has 50 million devices and 170MM preferences and is growing by 3 million devices a month. Companies use VuPulse to create personalized marketing and customer experiences, significantly increasing customer acquisition and retention.

Southwest Florida

DirectMail2.0, Clearwater (www.directmail2.com) offers a simple to use efficient one-stop solution to marry direct mail with a variety of the latest online digital marketing technologies resulting in exponential ROI by combining the fundamentals with the cutting edge. It also solves the problem of millions of SMBs who don’t have the resources or knowhow to launch an integrated online/offline campaign.

eTeki, Inc., Tampa (www.eteki.com)  validates the technical skills and competency of candidates for companies without the time, expertise or headcount to efficiently screen them. They help recruiters pick winners and improve their reputations with hiring managers.

Preferhired, Palm Harbor (www.preferhired.com) is an HR Technology software company, that has built the first online candidate referral marketplace that empowers everyone to help their friends and colleagues find jobs while rewarding them throughout the recruitment process.

Tellus Global, LLC, Naples (www.tellusglobal.us)designs, engineers and manufactures Advanced Building Systems utilizing its proprietary Tellus Building Systems for superstructures up to 10 stories, non-load bearing wall panels for pre-engineered and conventional steel buildings, and architectural cladding systems for high-rises up to 32 stories.

Simply Reliable, Inc., St. Petersburg (www.simplyreliable.com)makes smartOFFICE, mission-critical enterprise software for small business. smartOFFICE enables business owners and employees to run their business and collect revenues smoothly, efficiently and more profitably from first customer contact through final invoice.

Ziptek LLC, Sarasota (www.ziptekglobal.com) is the game changer in soft tissue repair, especially ligament or tendon to bone and more focused (rotator cuff repair). Ziptek has designed a device to optimize healing. It is the only device that system that will release its hold on the repair tissue once the repair tissue is mature enough to take over (natural healing).

Outside of Florida

International Metal Source, Cerritos, California (www.imetalsource.com) is an AS9100/ISO Certified, Women and Minority Owned Small Business specializing in research, analysis, processing, and delivery of hard to find exotic metals and materials. The IMS team’s current focus is to change how materials are procured and processed throughout the world by increasing client productivity and operational efficiency.

About The Florida Venture Forum:

The Florida Venture Forum is Florida’s largest statewide support organization for investors and entrepreneurs, helping emerging Florida companies connect with sources of capital from across the country. The organization provides numerous programs statewide throughout the year including the Florida Venture Capital Conference, the Statewide Collegiate Business Plan Competition and the Early Stage Angel Capital Conference. Please visit http://www.flventure.org for more information.        ###

_Media Contact:_

Florida Venture Forum

Jeanne A. Becker

Becker Public Relations

Telephone: 305-215-0220

Email: jbecker@beckerpublicrelations.com

Space Florida

Sara Shell

321-730-5301 x221sshell@spaceflorida.gov