Name: Voyage

Legal Name: Voyage SMS, Inc

Location: Los Angeles, California

Founded: 2018

Founder(s): Corey Epstein

Website: https://www.voyagetext.com/

Social Media Following: 119 Likes on Facebook, 28 Followers on LinkedIn 

INDUSTRY – Marketing Automation Software

Size: $5.10B in 2018 (Source: Mordor Intelligence)

Projections: $14.15B by 2024 (CAGR of 19.2%) (Source: Mordor Intelligence)

Introduction

Voyage SMS is a B2B SaaS company based in Los Angeles. They offer an automated text message marketing platform that enables e-commerce brands to more effectively leverage mobile marketing with SMS and MMS, providing significant ROAS and up to 10x revenues compared to email.

The Product 

Voyage is a mobile messaging solution that aims to be the MailChimp for SMS. Its proprietary text messaging platform helps e-commerce marketers maximize their revenue through text message-based mobile marketing. With Voyage, brands can build both short and long-term campaigns with automated messages for specific customer segments across their user journey. It offers custom solutions including but not limited to, initial opt-in list growth, automated drip campaigns, and weekend sales and promotions, which are aimed at helping clients achieve specific business goals. The platform also allows users to A/B test different copy for marketing messages to iteratively create the most impactful campaigns for their target audience. 

Voyage distinguishes itself from other bulk messaging platforms by bringing fresh functionalities to SMS that are more commonly seen in advanced email marketing automation platforms. The platform provides key performance metrics such as clicks, purchases, orders, revenue, etc. in real-time through its API integrations with commonly-used e-commerce tools, such as Shopify and ReCharge. Brands can use Voyage to segment their audience based on their buying behavior and engagement and create a customized communication experience to maximize conversions. They can also automate drip & one-time campaign messages to upsell products to existing customers, inform them about new product launches, offer discounts and promotions, or recover abandoned carts.

Voyage is also compatible with multichannel marketing and can be integrated with many other platforms (such as Klaviyo) so that marketers can use email for more visual content and text messaging for more time-sensitive communication. The combination of both email and SMS, therefore, allows for more effective engagement since text messaging delivers up to a 40%+ CTR, which is 5-10x better than email marketing.

Origin and Founding Team 

Corey Epstein, Founder and CEO of Voyage SMS, is a serial entrepreneur with interests across areas such as digital media, marketing, fashion, music, and brand building. In 2012, he founded DSTLD, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) fashion brand and spent over seven years overseeing the brand’s evolution with digital marketing and mobile communications. Between 2012 and 2017, the brand grew to achieve $3M in sales, which tripled soon following an equity crowdfunding round in early 2018 that enabled the company to scale up. During this period, Corey also witnessed the rise of text messaging as a marketing channel, and noticed that brands using it were seeing 4 times the engagement with SMS as compared to email.

Speaking about Voyage, Corey said, “While building DSTLD, we used several email marketing solutions and noticed a number of gaps in their functionality. They either did not have very detailed reporting features or could not be integrated with other channels. Simultaneously, the mobile consumer base for digital and e-commerce brands was growing steadily and e-mail no longer had the kind of impact that text messages did. So we set about building an automated platform that would allow businesses to leverage SMS in a similar manner as any email marketing software, but with more effective targeting and engagement capabilities. With Voyage, we focused considerably on the design and user experience to make the platform as simple as possible for businesses and allow them to derive maximum value from it.” 

Performance and Trends

Since it began operations in October 2018, Voyage has worked with several e-commerce startups and growth-stage businesses to improve their SMS marketing. It works with one-time purchase businesses as well as subscription-based businesses having revenues ranging from $5M to $150M.

Voyage’s clients include e-commerce brands with million-dollar-plus revenue such as Ruggable, a company manufacturing machine-washable rugs; Winc, a wine-in-a-box subscription brand; Dr. Squatch, a company offering all-natural, handmade soaps for men; and 12th Tribe, a women’s fashion e-commerce brand. 

In terms of the platform’s performance, Voyage recently helped a client generate $360K from a 4-day sale through SMS, representing 30% of the revenue their website generated during that period. An optimized message built on the Voyage dashboard and guided by insights from the dashboard gave a return of $6.55 per message, which is significantly higher than the average revenue per recipient of $0.08 from email campaigns, as per recent data from Klaviyo.

The post Voyage SMS – Text marketing platform for e-commerce business growth appeared first on Techweek.

Name: Sunbox

Legal Name: Sunbox Inc

Location: Los Angeles, California

Founded: 2015

Founder(s): Vanessa Ballesteros and Elisa Gomez

Website: https://sunboxmarket.com/

Social Media Following: 134 Likes on Facebook, 325 Followers on Twitter, 5145 Followers on Instagram 

INDUSTRY – Food Tech

Size: $357M in 2018 (Source: MarketWatch)

Projections: $145.64B by 2025, by 2025 (CAGR of 12%) (Source: MarketWatch)

Introduction

Sunbox is a food tech company that offers smart kiosks with organic, vegan, and locally sourced foods, snacks, and beverages to make healthy eating affordable and convenient through technology. 

The Product 

Sunbox provides smart kiosks which come with a curated selection of organic food items and beverages with options that include vegan, gluten-free, paleo, soy-free, nut-free, grain-free, raw, non-GMO and kosher. It offers its kiosks to organizations, hospitals, schools, gyms, as well as residences. Sunbox partners with local beverage and food makers to regularly stock their kiosks with a variety of healthy foods. 

Underlining its focus on being an environmentally conscious company, Sunbox uses recycled wood to build its kiosks and smarter in-built mechanisms ensure lower energy consumption than conventional vending machines. The kiosks have a touch screen that allows customers to view information such as ingredients and nutrition facts about each food item. Once a customer decides what they want, they can add it to their virtual shopping cart and then check out using either a credit card or through the Sunbox mobile app. 

Origin and Founding Team 

Sunbox was founded by Vanessa Ballesteros and Elisa Gomez in 2015. 

Vanessa is an Emmy Award-winning television producer with producing credits for shows such as Hell’s Kitchen, The Amazing Race, and Survivor under her belt. Elisa has spent over a decade as an operations management professional with experience in customer service, relationship building. She has previously worked at Well Fargo for over a decade across multiple roles and later as the business manager at a fashion e-commerce retailer in LA. 

As someone who would spend days traveling for work and keeping odd hours while working on projects, Vanessa was tired of the processed and sugar-rich foods offered in the name of healthy snacks. She approached her friend, Elisa Gomez, who had a similar idea almost at the same time for a convenient way to eat healthy while on the go based on her own experience of juggling a hectic schedule and trying to maintain healthy eating habits. Seeking to make health foods quickly and easily available to people, the two collaborated to create Sunbox. 

Performance and Trends

In May 2018, Sunbox Inc. was chosen to be a part of LA Cleantech Incubator’s maiden cohort of the Founders Business Accelerator program developed with the City of Los Angeles.

The post Sunbox – Smart kiosks for healthy snacking on the go appeared first on Techweek.

Name: Nena’s Organics

Legal Name: Nena’s Organics

Location: Los Angeles, California

Founded: 2017

Founder(s): Malvena Walker-Addison

Website: https://nenasorganics.com/ 

Social Media Following: 306 Likes on Facebook, 21 Followers on Twitter, 732 Followers on Instagram 

INDUSTRY – Organic Personal Care

Size: $13.33B in 2018 (Source: Grand View Research)

Projections: $25.11B by 2025 (CAGR of 9.4%) (Source: Grand View Research)

Introduction

Nena’s Organics creates organic health and beauty products formulated and prepared by hand. The products contain essential oils, are made only from plant-based ingredients, and do not have any chemicals, preservatives, alcohol, or water. 

The Product 

Nena’s Organics offers a range of products targeted at various skin and non-skin ailments such as eczema, psoriasis, lichen planus, chapped lips, chronic dry skin, diabetes, high blood pressure, lupus, seizures, ADHD, cancer, arthritis. It also offers products that can be used daily or regularly for hair and skin care. Some of the offerings by Nena’s Organics include body scrubs, lotion bars, healing scrubs and bars, shampoos, massage oils, hair and facial care products, as well as gift baskets. 

The company’s website also mentions that it specializes in creating custom blends for customers based on their specific requirements. 

Origin and Founding Team 

Nena’s Organics was founded by Malvena Walker-Addison in 2017. 

On the company’s website, she mentions having firsthand experience with skin ailments due to the use of generic skincare products. This prompted her to create products for herself using natural ingredients. As she came to know of the benefits of natural, plant-based ingredients in curing other physical conditions such as arthritis, high blood pressure, and cancer, she began creating products to address these ailments through a combination of various natural products. She also spoke to her customers and individuals with skin conditions to help identify specific symptoms and the right ingredients to address the same. 

Eventually, she went on to start her own business under the brand name of Nena’s Organics by selling her handmade products online as well as offline through direct orders.

Performance and Trends

In May 2018, Nena’s Organics was chosen by the LA Cleantech Incubator to be a part of the first cohort of the Founders Business Accelerator program developed with the City of Los Angeles. The accelerator program is aimed towards helping growing small businesses from under-represented communities through mentorship on strategy, finance, and marketing. 

The post Nena’s Organics – Handmade and plant-based skin care products appeared first on Techweek.

Name: PICKL

Legal Name: PICKL, Inc.

Location: Los Angeles, California

Founded: September 2018

Founder(s): Ossie Cohen, Bruce Weyman, Vijay Mohan

Website: www.pickl.xyz

Social Media: 84 followers on Instagram, 50 followers on Linkedln, 3 on Twitter and 89 likes on Facebook

Industry: Global SCM Software Market

Size: $10.85B in 2016 (Source: Allied Market Research Report on Global SCM Software)

Projections: $24.53B in 2025 at a CAGR of 9.7% for 2018-2025 (Source: Allied Market Research Report on Global SCM Software)

Introduction

PICKL is looking to revolutionize brand visibility on retail shelves by using consumers to provide stocking and shelving information about products at supermarkets. The company positions itself as the Uber of retail visibility for brands and is currently targeting the natural products industry. PICKL’s proprietary platform monetizes grocery shopping for consumers, incentivizing them to provide information to a brand about their stocking situation in individual supermarkets. The interaction is also used as an opportunity to help consumers discover new brands.

The Product

The company’s application is currently in a closed beta working with a small set of consumers who have been on-boarded as ‘Exclusive Beta Testers + Strategic Brand Partners’. The downloadable app gives you an alert when you are in a supermarket a brand wants to get data from. It indicates which brand to look for, taking consumers to where the product is shelved. Consumers receive digital payments ($5, according to the company’s video on Facebook) when they complete a task, usually taking a picture of a product on a specific shelf. Brands can get a verified visual update on their stocking and shelving situation.

For the closed beta, PICKL has partnered with 5 natural products companies – Split, Mommy’s Bliss, Herbs America, Wishgarden, and Tints of Nature.

Origin and Founding Team

The company is the brainchild of Ossie Cohen, according to the company’s crowdsourced loan page on the platform Kiva. Ossie is an experienced sales executive with experience of the travel and natural products industries and claims to have won 16 awards in 5 years of engaging with the natural products industry. His motivation was to find a service that could help him engage with all brands and help them grow, which is where PICKL was born.

Co-founder Bruce Weyman is the Sales Director at Split Nutrition and has 9 years of experience in natural products retail. Vijay Mohan is the co-founder and CTO of PICKL. As a Director of Engineering at Ranker, he brings 9+ years of working as an engineer and leading technology teams to PICKL. These co-founders are also joined by Jamie McKeown, a Health Coach and wellness industry business development expert.

Trends and Performance

The company has completed a $10,000 loan from Kiva in early July, and has also gathered support from a network of public and private bodies supporting innovation in Long Beach such as the Downtown Long Beach Alliance, Employment Development Department of the Government of California, the Long Beach Small Business Development Center, and the Pacific Gateway Workforce Program.

The post PICKL – helping brands increase their retail visibility appeared first on Techweek.