An Irvine-based company recently released software that it says streamlines the process of picking a contractor to install newly purchased home products.
Velexo is the brainchild of Todd Banhidy, who created software that powers a “Buy It Installed” button retailers integrate into their websites. The one-click step is designed to replace the typical process of hiring a contractor to install a purchased product.
He said he’s created a Velexo database of more than 180,000 contractors to call on and that about 500 are currently active. They undergo an automated verification and background check before they come on board, he added.
“What happens behind the scenes is nothing short of a miraculous combination of processes and flow charts and data and predictive analytics and automated computer [programs],” Banhidy said. “I [worked on] designing it for 20 years.”
Banhidy said he was inspired to create Velexo in 2012 after witnessing and then trying to understand the fear and frustration he saw consumers encounter in the process of hiring contractors to install products. He said he’s worked for decades at all levels of the field services sector.
“It’s a tough journey for the consumer to make it all the way to the end of the funnel and get something installed,” he said.
Banhidy launched the Buy It Installed software a few months ago. Eight manufacturers have since paid to use it, he said. The manufacturers sell their products on national websites, such as Atlanta, GA.-based Home Depot and Newport News, VA.-based Ferguson Enterprises Inc.
Velexo has raised $2.2 million in seed money, Banhidy said.
It’s taking incremental bridge financing to handle its “huge current demand,” Executive Vice President Michael Connor said.
“It’s an exciting time … with massive growth ahead and an expected six times valuation increase by the middle of next year.”
IDing Geopolitical Forces
An Irvine-based company that’s created software to identify how geopolitical factors influence fluctuating global commodities prices is raising a seed round of between $500,000 and $750,000.Â
TerraManta provides customers with “more accurate insights” about long-term price volatility. So far it’s analyzed crude oil, and will add other commodities down the line. Chief Executive Leon Kotovich said. It recently released the second version of its software with real-time, updating capabilities.
The inspiration to start the company came in early 2014 as Kotovich and co-founder Andrei Klimanov started to observe that “no one seemed to have a solution to quantify the impact of geopolitical drivers,” Kotovich said.
“The price of not combining the analysis of geopolitical drivers together with supply, demand, inventory, and distribution [fundamentals] is expensive,” he said, giving United Airlines’ loss of $1 billion to close fuel hedges last year as an example.
“TerraManta quantifies, and then combines the analysis of geopolitical drivers, together with fundamentals at a significant scale, using machine learning technology, an impossible task even for a team of human commodities analysts,” he said via email. Â
Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that enables computers to “learn” without human input to improve the algorithms they use over time.
TerraManta launched in May, when it released the first version of its software. It recently began working on predictive analytics software that’s scheduled to be released within the next few months to “a major investment bank who has expressed significant interest in both investing and becoming an early customer,” Kotovich said.
Predictive analytics is a branch of machine learning.
The company has three customers using the first release of the software on a trial basis, Kotovich said.
The co-founders provided initial capital in the several hundred thousands to launch, he said.
You-Tube Caterer
A startup that’s planning a digital production house recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $2,500.
Mindstream Studio launched the campaign on Kickstarter on Nov. 1. It ends on Dec. 16.
The short-form video studio is described as the “World’s 1st Crowdfunded YouTube Studio.” Short-form videos typically last about five minutes, Thimmig said.
The goal is $2,500, because that’s what’s needed to greenlight the project, founder and Executive Producer Mark Thimmig said. The first day brought the campaign to 120% of the goal. He said he wants to ultimately raise millions.
He created Mindstream Studio after realizing “how important short-form video was becoming and how there was a big need for it, particularly in OC, to not only develop this business but to provide some capabilities to people who don’t want to drive all the way to L.A.”
It’s already launched two shows on YouTube: “Crowdfunding Voice” and “The Crowd Gadget Show.” And it’s getting a lot of interest from those who want to create short-form videos to become YouTube personalities, as well as from companies that want to create video content for their websites and social media pages, Thimmig said.
Mindstream Studio’s video facility is about 2,800 square feet. The plan is to build out to 7,200 square feet with five sets, including a tech review set, a kitchen set and a beauty-lifestyle set.
The first phase of the buildout is already under way, and the first 5,000 square feet is scheduled to be complete by Jan. 31. Thimmig said he hopes the studio will be ready by mid-February.
He provided a “significant” personal investment as a loan while the studio raises money.
