The Pitch

SwineTech creates solutions to reduce the number of piglets that die from disease, starvation, and crushing, which costs the industry more than $8.9 billion per year. SwineTech's patented technology, SmartGuard, uses advanced acoustic engineering, proprietary algorithms, and machine learning to filter and detect when a piglet is getting crushed. SwineTech also provides farmers with a swine-management feature that can provide farmers with a real-time health analysis of each sow, enabling them to detect, isolate, and treat a potential viral outbreak in their facilities. The introduction of advanced farrowing-managements systems will allow farmers to significantly cut losses. SwineTech's social mission is to improve animal welfare and enable farmers to feed the world, one saved piglet at a time.

Traction

In the past three months, SwineTech raised $1 million and received purchase orders from multiple producers, including the largest pork producer in Tennessee. Over the past year, the company received $235,000 through business-plan competitions. SwineTech has won competitions at Harvard, Princeton, and Microsoft, and also has been named a finalist for agtech company of the year alongside John Deere and Pioneer.

Note: All data as of 1/31/17

The Pitch

It's difficult to locate all the food options airports have to offer. Trippie's mobile app provides an interactive map of airports, which helps users get a lay of the land. By displaying menus, reviews, hours, and an estimated time away from the user's standing location, the app takes the user to an airport restaurant of his or her choice. The app learns users' tastes and makes suggestions catered to them.

Traction

In the spring of 2016, Trippie was awarded $21,900 in funding by winning first place in a Shark Tank-like competition. Revenue originates from partnerships with vendors and through sponsored content. To date, Trippie has received $31,900 in funding and has 470 app store downloads. Future launches include more airport layouts, in-app messaging options, and expansions into other indoor venues.

Note: All data as of 1/31/17

The New York City-based startup's platform aims to help human resources teams organize and analyze employee data--diversity stats, employee salaries, performance metrics, and the like--so that company leaders can make more informed decisions. "It can answer those ad hoc questions that come up frequently in senior leadership meetings that would take hours or weeks to pull data and turn into analytics," says 29-year-old Jospeh Quan, who co-founded Twine with Nikhil Srivastava, 31, in 2017. Though it is still in stealth mode--the company plans to launch formally later this year--it has raised a total of $2.7 million in funding from personal savings, angel investors, and venture capital firm Trinity Ventures. Early customers include note-taking app Evernote and blood-test company Guardant Health. --Emily Canal

The Pitch

101 is increasing student engagement in college STEM classrooms with tools that promote active learning. This past fall, the company launched Chem101, which allows chemistry professors to send problems that their students complete on personal devices during lectures. Chem101 has been successfully piloted at eight schools, including Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, and the University of Cincinnati. Unlike clickers or other classroom-response tools that use generic multiple-choice questions, Chem101 builds subject-specific modules with intuitive ways for students to learn and interact with problems. Students get automated feedback and professors see what their entire class is drawing in real time so they can promote a class discussion about common mistakes. 

Traction

Since its launch of Chem101, the company has been gaining positive reviews from students who are using the software. Eighty-eight percent of students agreed that Chem101 helped them learn Lewis structures, while 77 percent indicated that they preferred using Chem101 over any other existing course tools. By marketing the software to instructors, the company has been able to implement Chem101 in students' coursework and sell the software for $5 to $25 per semester per student. 101 is now expanding Chem101's curriculum support and intends to expand to other subjects including physics, math, and biology. The company is also looking to develop a K-12 learning tool that can be dispersed internationally.

Note: All data as of 1/31/17