Clothing resale, IVF tech startups land investments in pitch competition
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A Bloomington startup competition has awarded two Indianapolis companies — one improving the chances of in-vitro fertilization for animals and another using AI to improve clothing resale — with investments to boost the innovative Indiana companies’ growth and ability to become industry leaders.
The Mill, a Bloomington-based not-for-profit providing entrepreneurship resources, holds the biannual Crossroads Pitch Competition, which is one of the largest in the state. The competition is open to all Indiana-based companies bringing in less than $250,000 in annual recurring revenue.
The companies fall into two categories: pre-seed and seed. Everewear took home the pre-seed honor with a $10,000 investment, while ReproHealth Technologies was the seed awardee receiving $20,000.
The Mill announced the winners on Tuesday.
Everewear looks to improve customer and seller experiences by using AI to better connect shoppers with what they are looking for. The company uses an API to canvas the listings of clothing resale sites, and AI to parse through items to find what a user would like based on style, size and budget. The company holds no inventory and has no listing fees; instead, it takes a percentage of each sale.
The company hopes to capitalize on a growing industry, founder Anna Dorris said, and touts that her platform reduces shopping time by 60%. Prior to the competition, she raised $45,000 and is looking for funds to create a custom website and API.
“The cash prize allows for Everewear to further our pre-seed raise and gets us one step closer to moving sustainable fashion forward,” Dorris said in a news release. “The fashion industry is the second most polluting industry, and we will not be able to reach circularity until we solve the discoverability problem that is inherent with secondhand clothes.”
ReproHealth Technologies hopes to mitigate issues with IVF implantation. The aim is to improve the chances of fertilization through this method — one that can be fairly expensive if it fails.
The focus has remained on animals with company creating the world’s first bovine intravaginal embryo culture device, which founder and CEO Dr. James Donahue said will cause a wave in the $66 billion cattle production industry. The company has also created a specialized embryo culture dish for humans.
Through new investments, the veterinary and medical device company looks to continue working toward its goal of creating assistive reproductive devices.
The two winners now move onto the Elevate Ventures’ Nexus Regional Pitch Competition, where they could win a $20,000 or $80,000 investment.
Other finalists in the pre-seed category include Bar Bands, Dynamic House and Soloist. Seed finalists include Bilingual Bridges, DiversiFind and Practical Products.
Previous competition winners include heARsight, Wave Therapeutics and Utiliz, offering new assistive hearing technology, products to lessen the chance of injury to the mobility-impaired population and ways to save on a utility bills, respectively.