The Boston tech scene is once again on the up and up.
According to the research group and accelerator Startup Genome’s “2020 Global Startup Ecosystem Report,” the city was ranked as the fifth-best city in the world for tech startups. The report also stated that Boston’s tech ecosystem is valued at approximately $96 billion.
So what’s in store for the city that’s climbing to the top of the tech scene? Built In Boston connected with seven local companies that have big plans in store for 2021.
This year, Veeva, a cloud-computing company focused on pharmaceutical and life science industry applications, is focused on the development of its latest product, MyVeeva. VP of Engineering Jacob Marcus said that the web and mobile app will enable a more streamlined process, thereby getting patients the treatments they need faster.
What is one of the most important focuses for Veeva in 2021?
Veeva’s Boston engineering team is hyper-focused on building a new product called MyVeeva for patients from the ground up. The web and mobile applications we are developing will enable clinical trials to become more accessible to patients, as well as streamline data redundancy and accuracy. It’s a game-changer for how clinical trials are run, making them more efficient and effective than ever before.
We are heads down on this because of the direct impact it has on peoples’ health and well-being. Speeding up this process can equate to lives saved and quality of life enhanced for millions of people around the world. Creating a virtual experience for doctors and patients will greatly reduce the need for in-person site visits, increase patient participation and enable a doctor’s ability to connect with them virtually.
This product will allow our customers in pharma and biotech to increase participation and communication with patients.”
What impact will this have on Veeva and/or your industry?
The mobile and web applications that we’re building in Boston are going to change clinical trials as we know them today. Clinical trials have been in-person, paper-driven and cumbersome to manage. With more than 1 million patients in clinical trials each year around the world, this product will allow our customers in pharma and biotech to increase participation and communication with patients.
To put this into the context of the COVID-19 pandemic we are facing today, MyVeeva’s cloud applications would allow customers to enroll more patients into their clinical trials, improve communication and the ability to report on treatment outcomes throughout the process. It would take months off the process, which we have learned can equate to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives saved.
Although it serves a wide variety of businesses, MineralTree, a payment automation software that focuses on accounts payable, is shifting its focus to healthcare companies as a result of the pandemic in 2021, CEO Micah Remley said.
What is one of the most important focuses for MineralTree in 2021?
Our mission at MineralTree is to revolutionize B2B commerce by making it easier for companies to do business with each other. In 2021, that means continuing our journey of making technology easy to use and accessible across businesses of all sizes. We do this by applying the big themes in technology, cloud computing, machine learning, predictive analytics and seamless integrations to automate the accounts payable and B2B payments processes. While we serve businesses of all types, we have had a particular focus on healthcare companies given the deep needs in the space brought on by the pandemic.
In 2021, we will continue our journey of making technology easy to use and accessible across businesses of all sizes.”
What impact will this have on MineralTree and/or your industry?
Over $130 trillion in B2B payments are made each year globally — that’s about four times the size of the global consumer market. Of those $130 trillion in payments, approximately 60 percent of them are made via paper check sent through the mail. Think about how you run your personal life — it would be crazy to pay 60 percent of your bills through the mail. Yet, that is how most companies operate, and it’s even worse for middle-market companies, whereas recently as last year we saw 70 percent of bills being paid by check. We’ve been able to drive that down dramatically and, with our 2021 initiatives, we plan on taking another quantum leap in driving checks out of the B2B payment process.
For full-service e-commerce agency Trellis, things are looking up, CEO Isaiah Bollinger said. The company is merging with a high-end branding firm to improve design and creative services to better serve top-tier clients.
What is one of the most important focuses for Trellis in 2021?
We are going through a merger to bring on a high-end branding firm to improve our design and creative services. Our most important focus is to unify the two organizations so we can be as effective as possible as one unit. This is an incredibly exciting time for us to become one organization and bring best of breed design and e-commerce services to the world.
We believe that by the end of 2021, we will have the most high-quality full-service e-commerce capabilities in the market.”
What impact will this have on Trellis and/or your industry?
We believe that by the end of 2021, we will have the most high-quality full-service e-commerce capabilities in the market. We can create a brand from scratch and build their e-commerce site as well as market it to get sales. We can help a company with every facet of e-commerce and help them become competitive in the most important channel in the economy today.
Because of the success AdmitHub, an AI-powered digital messaging software, has seen with providing students with support throughout the enrollment process, SVP of Product and Analytics Hari Challapalli said that in 2021, the company is going to focus on finding additional ways to help support them throughout the entire student lifecycle.
What is one of the most important focuses for AdmitHub in 2021?
AdmitHub’s vision is to inspire all learners to progress on their path of personal growth with joyful AI-powered support. AdmitHub helps colleges, universities and college access networks enroll and retain students in higher education. We provide students with the necessary support and information to build easier pathways into education and to ensure their success. We do this by delivering the right messages at the right time, phrased the right way via digital channels.
One of our key focus areas in 2021 is to build upon the success and traction we have seen in the enrollment stage of the student lifecycle and explore additional stages where we can provide learners the support they need to be successful in their academic and personal goals. There are multiple opportunities for us to create a rich engagement with learners using our platform and technology with an objective to improve overall outcomes for the student as well as the institution. We want to increase the footprint of where and how often we can engage with students throughout their education journey.
We want to increase the footprint of where and how often we can engage with students throughout their education journey.”
What impact will this have on AdmitHub and your industry?
Looking beyond the enrollment stage and exploring additional stages in the student’s journey where we can support them has exciting and tremendous opportunities for us to drive a positive impact for students, institutions and the overall higher education landscape.
For example, the skills gap is a well-acknowledged and pressing issue that employers are dealing with where they find that college graduates lack the skills required to be successful in the workplace. Consequently, employers are having to spend time and money to onboard new graduates and provide them on-the-job training.
What if we could help students as early as their first or second year in college to understand the career pathways available to them that are aligned with their interests, and then prepare them for those careers through a combination of recommendation to internships, certifications, online courses or mentorships? This would not only prepare them for a successful career but the motivation of having gainful employment at the end of their college journey would be a tremendous driver in ensuring academic success and also graduation rates of students.
PathAI’s mission is to improve patient outcomes with AI-powered technology — and scaling in 2021 is only going to help that mission, Megan Rothney, VP of product, said.
What is one of the most important focuses for PathAI in 2021?
PathAI’s main focus in 2021 is scale. We are working to expand and enhance our platforms to allow for speed and efficiency in developing scientific and clinical insights across many more diseases and therapies. We are fortunate to build these capabilities with top-tier partners in the laboratory and pharmaceutical spaces, which allows us to be better positioned to see our technology used to help improve the outcomes of patients as they journey through clinical research and care.
Our technology has the potential to impact patients and their families in many ways.”
What impact will this have on PathAI and/or your industry?
We consider pathology to be the ground truth of medicine. The PathAI technology is transforming pathology with machine learning algorithms to improve how we uncover this ground truth that is highly sensitive and reproducible. Our technology has the potential to impact patients and their families in many ways, including the identification of patients that are eligible for given therapies.
Indico helps companies automate their document-heavy work, and in 2021, they’re looking to keep growing, Diana Yuan, co-founder and VP of talent and operations, said. Fresh off a bout of funding, the company is looking toward a year of scaling its team and business.
What is one of the most important focuses for Indico in 2021?
After closing our $22 million Series B in December of last year, our focus for 2021 is scaling our team to meet rapidly growing customer and industry demand. Over the last year, we’ve been humbled by the incredible response we’ve seen from our customers. As the intelligent automation category experiences explosive growth, Indico has emerged as a leader. We have an incredible team that we’re looking to double in the next year across our engineering, research, sales and marketing teams.
As the intelligent automation category experiences explosive growth, Indico has emerged as a leader.”
What impact will this have on Indico and/or your industry?
Indico is in the business of making bleeding edge AI radically accessible. It’s a lot of hard work across every function. We are growing as fast as responsible to deliver an ambitious product roadmap and scale our go to market initiatives, including expanding our channel relationships and integration partnerships. We’ve seen tremendous growth and are looking for the right people to join our mission to take it to the next level.
This year, 3Play Media, a software company that provides closed captioning, transcription, translation and audio description services, is planning to scale its live, fully-automated captioning service as well as its live professional captioning solution, Co-CEO Christopher Antunes said.
What is one of the most important focuses for 3PlayMedia in 2021?
Last year was a year of rapid change, accelerated roadmaps, and for some, a complete reimagining of their business. In our world of video accessibility, this change manifested as sudden, industry-wide (education, corporate, events, etc.) forced virtualization. This led to a surge in demand for video communication, including recorded, live and simulated live, resulting in a commensurate need for closed captioning and audio description services.
While we were uniquely positioned to meet this demand in the recorded video space, our exciting new live captioning service was largely untested. It required rapid learning and iteration on live supporting services and live closed captioning. This learning and persistent demand accelerated our commitment to supporting accessibility in live video to complement our established and scaled services supporting recorded video.
One of our key initiatives in 2021 is to continue to scale our live, fully-automated captioning service and to introduce our live professional captioning solution powered by contract-based live captioners leveraging 3Play Media technology services to comprehensively serve our enterprise customers.
We’re confident that adding a robust live captioning offering to our suite of services will put 3Play Media at the top.”
What impact will this have on 3Play Media and your industry?
While we eagerly anticipate normalcy in 2021, we are certain that the progress in virtualization, video and accessibility will persist and continue to create both value in the market and equality through access. This bell cannot be unrung. We expect continued, growing demand for highly accurate, reliable and simply integrated closed captioning solutions as the new normal.
In our industry today, we don’t see a fully-scaled, technology-oriented company with a holistic, integrated solution to reliably support both recorded and live video accessibility requirements. We are confident that adding a robust live captioning offering to our suite of accessibility products and services will make 3Play Media that solution.
Our commitment involves significantly expanding our product and engineering teams as well as onboarding hundreds of contract-based live captioners. Live events occur 24 hours a day, seven days a week, are often scheduled with very little notice and leave little room for failure.
We believe our expertise in contractor management, machine learning and enterprise support uniquely position 3Play Media to solve these challenges and bring a disruptive product to market.
