2022 Recap: Non-Stop Motion

Phew, we did all this in just one year?

As we come to the end of 2022, let’s pause to celebrate what we accomplished working together as a community this year.

TL;DR
13 companies created from scratch, 10 more existing companies accelerated, 15,129 mentor conversations with 123 mentors, 301 investor pitches, over 600 people made connections at More Founders events, and $3.7 million raised to fuel our expansion to serve founders statewide with offices in Lincoln and Omaha.

Now Serving Founders Statewide

On a beautiful June 9 morning from the rooftop of Hudl, Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird announced that NMotion powered by gener8tor had raised $3.7 million to expand to serve the entire state of Nebraska, create an Omaha office to complement our Lincoln office, and start & grow 24 Nebraska startups in the next two years. We gathered twice at Millwork Commons in Omaha once to celebrate on July 19 with press and dignitaries to unveil the inaugural NMotion Growth Accelerator cohort and another time on October 26 for the NMotion Showcase.

June 9 Lincoln Press Event

October 26 NMotion Showcase

NMotion Programs in 2022

Alumni Company Milestones in 2022

Since 2013, NMotion has helped 84 early stage companies, 23 of which have collectively raised $21.9 million in follow-on funding. Here’s what NMotion alumni companies have achieved this year alone:

• Snappy Workflow completed a paid pilot test inspecting 1,100 miles of electrical utility lines, raised $1m in funding, received $150,000 in total from the State of Nebraska Prototype Grant, and is currently negotiating its 2023 customer contracts

• SheMate welcomed over 2,400 athletes on to its platform, raised $25,000 from Launch Ventures, and will exhibit at the January 2023 NCAA Convention Tradeshow thanks to a sponsorship from fnbo

• Forsure Fit secured a $89,000 State of Nebraska Prototype Grant and is beta testing its 3D modeling tool

• Ensemble launched its first product for creative artifact auctions and generated $21,000 in revenues for artists

• Bumper enrolled its 10,000th customer and is the largest teenage investment app

• WellCapped won a $10,000 investment from Boss Women’s Media’s pitch competition, was accepted into Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator, and launched a Luxe Membership Tier through a new partnership with My Parfait

• Kadogo completed Black Founders exchange, secured strategic partnerships with Kard Integration and Stripe Treasury and currently has 1000 individual accounts, 126 enterprise accounts, and 3500 transactions per month on average

• BitVerify hit market headwinds and has decided to wind down its operations

• Corral Technologies closed a seed round of $713,000, is building its mobile app, and received preorders for 1,745 devices to date

• Tiiga has tripled annual revenues YoY ($150,000) and is now available coast-to-coast

• Hazlo Health won $10,000 in the first Minority Small Business Summer Pitch Competition and has started to generate revenue

• Plug Sports returned to Nebraska and has closed a $500,000 fundraising round

• Microwash secured a $95,000 State of Nebraska Prototype grant

• Birdseye Robotics closed a $1.1m seed round

• AION Prosthetics submitted its patent applications and continues to work on FDA Class 1 approval

• A+ Berry launched its first product, AroJuice, and co-founder Changmou Xu was named Emerging Innovator by NUTech at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Particle Space returned to Japan to continue developing customer relationships for its API platform and will pitch at the Tokyo City Pitch Competition in February

• Maxwell closed a $500,000 funding round, secured an additional State of Nebraska Prototype grant (cumulative total of $150,000), and won first place at the Latinx in Tech: NYC competition, which comes with a $15,000 non-dilutive grant

More Founders: Connections + Collisions

With new and familiar faces emerging again post pandemic, we sought to gather as many people as possible to celebrate and inspire more people to tackle big, juicy opportunities right here in Nebraska.

Thanks to support from Nelnet, Invest Nebraska, Nebraska Angels, Enterprise Legal Studios, and Akira Coffee, we connected over 600 people in Lincoln, Omaha, and Kearney for a variety of gatherings.

• More Founders Student Summit connected college students with seasoned community members to ideate, discuss and propose solutions to common themes and problems found in the Nebraska Startup Ecosystem

• Short & Scrappy gathered people in three cities for four two-hour prototyping parties to learn ideation techniques and put No Code tools to work

• More Founders Monthly Social alternated between Lincoln and Omaha so startup founders could celebrate their milestones, trade war stories, and connect with other founders in the community

• More Founders Long Game gathered 18 seasoned founders and active investors to discuss how the Nebraska startup community could cultivate the creation of at least one company generating $100M in annual recurring revenue every three years

• More Founders Tailgate served up tasty drinks and eats for startup founders, investors, and community champions before the Huskers final home game of the year

• More Founders Holiday Party brought 108 attendees together for daytime holiday spirit, free headshots, and belly warming food at CompanyCam

So what’s in store for 2023?

Even more non-stop motion to celebrate the tenth anniversary of NMotion.

Thank you to all the NMotion founders, sponsors, investors, mentors, community partners, and friends for your continued support over the past year. We look forward to growing and building with you in 2023.

Keeping banging the drum,

The NMotion powered by gener8tor Team

Scott Henderson

Mason Cook

TJ Jacobson

Erica Courtney

Sam Lily