Fast Facts on 6 Baltimore Startups

Below are 6 Baltimore Startups you should be paying attention to. Whether you are working on finding a job, searching for a brand new career, or have an interest in what’s happening in the world of technology, they may be of interest. The following Baltimore Startups have one thing in common. They all started with an entrepreneurial spirit. The fuel of Baltimore Startups are rooted in this spirit and deliver on the needs of the community.

Baltimore Startups and What They Offer

Allovue

• What they do: They provide K-12 Finance Software & Services in areas of budget, management, and evaluation of district spending. A helpful resource for Superintendents, CFO’s and Budget Directors, and District Administrators.
• A former Baltimore City middle school teacher founded Allovue in 2013. This teacher saw first-hand how budgeting impacts student success. The founding team brought together educators, technologists, education finance experts, and data specialists to build innovative education finance technology solutions. Their overall mission: To empower educators to strategically and equitably allocate resources to best support the needs of students.
• Allovue is currently working with districts across 15 states to budget and manage over $20B in education spending. Allovue’s software platform, Balance, integrates seamlessly with districts’ existing accounting systems and other data systems. It helps educators budget, manage, and evaluate spending. Allovue also provides supplemental services, including funding equity analysis, diagnostic surveys, financial management training.

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Terbium Labs

• What they do: They provide data intelligence with Matchlight. Matchlight is the world’s first fully private, fully automated data intelligence system. They notify the user immediately if even a trace of data shows up where it shouldn’t. 
• Its massive crawling infrastructure constantly scans the dark web for any trace of your sensitive information. With patented Data Fingerprinting technology, they can alert you the moment they detect your exact data online. This happens without needing access to your original data.
• Matchlight’s dark web monitoring keeps an eye on your data so you don’t have to. It measures your baseline exposure, strengthening your compliance posture. They offer real-time incident reports. This provides valuable domain expertise. Additionally, this offers actionable next steps for any organization.

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Blispay

• What they do: Founder Greg Lisiewski drew influence for Blispay from his prior experience working with MBNA. This happened all before online banking took off. The Canton-based fintech startup gives small retailers a way to offer financing. Instead of signing a contract and bringing in tech, the merchants just have to display a sign that details Blispay. Then, consumers can apply for approval on their phone for a Visa card. This card comes with no interest for six months on purchases over $199. If approved, they get a card on their phone to complete the purchase on the spot. Then, they receive a physical Visa card roughly 7-10 days later. People can use the card for normal purchases. It provides 2 percent cash back on all purchases.
• Bill Me Later’s founding and acquisition by eBay/PayPal created a fintech center in Lutherville-Timonium. Coming out of stealth mode, a startup founded by a former Bill Me Later leader provides a new reason to look toward Canton. After moving to Natty Boh Tower in January, Blispay announced $12.75 million in seed funding and went live with its first product, a tool designed to allow small merchants to provide customers with financing options.

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Gunbail

• What they do: GunBail helps reduce crime with a unique payment trade-off. For starters, it uses an innovating process to help remove illegal guns from the streets. Secondly, it allows inmates to post bail by using their illegal guns as payment.
• To Use: Simply take a picture of the firearm from within the GunBail app. Then, specify the inmate and his location. Lastly, pay the GunBail Shipping & Handling fee. They send you a GunBail box and tell you where to drop off the firearm. They do this while granting amnesty during the process. Once you’ve dropped your GunBail box at a drop-off location, it’s recorded in the system as officially surrendered. All surrendered guns are sent to local law enforcement authorities. Once local law enforcement has received the package, your loved one can post bail as early as 48 hours. Of course, this depends on the local law enforcement agency.
  

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Roadi

• What they do: They make it easier to find parking. This University of Baltimore–based startup’s app (Android and Apple devices) provides location info on free spots.
  
• When he moved to the city, founder Ope Thomas found that parking presented a challenge in other parts of the city, too. He realized he wasn’t alone – whether among University of Baltimore students, Baltimore residents or those in other cities. So he started working on a tech solution that would help others find parking. After testing ideas within the company’s base at the University of Baltimore’s student incubator, he and a team of three others ended up at Roadi.
• Thomas said the company started by focusing on specific areas with high parking demand. Given Thomas’ experiences, the University of Baltimore quickly became one such initial area. The team also started gathering data from Mt. Vernon to Canton.

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Fixt

• What they do: They provide convenient and reliable device repair. How? Via an app that can detect mobile device damage.
• The Fells Point-based startup closed its seed round at $1.4 million, according to a statement issued last week. The round was initially expected to close at around $1 million.
• With its app that begins the device-repair process, the company is targeting bigger firms. Along with the investment, a new round of announced clients includes UMBC, Kaiser Permanente, Johns Hopkins University and Promontory Financial Group.

Over to you. Comment below if you have some Baltimore Startups you’d like to shed light on!