Startup radar: Electric trailers, audio detection, onboarding agents, construction communication
From top left, clockwise: Audiori CEO Remya Nair Stephen; Elementrailer CEO Frank Lin; Fluidworks CEO Jose Kuttan; and Pivotal Build CEO Jonathan Madamba.
From clean tech to voice tech, we're spotlighting another batch of early stage startups making moves in Seattle.
A big thanks to Austin Guyette, partner at Seattle venture capital firm Voyager Capital, who provided the 'VC View' investor perspective for each startup.
Read more to learn about the companies, and check out past startup radar spotlights here. Email me at taylor@geekwire.com to flag startups to feature.
Audiori
Founded: 2024
The business: AI supertool for sound. Aims to detect matches between songs, layers within songs, and different audio components — a self-described 'smart, semantic copyright detection' tool. Audiori is preparing for a limited beta launch later this month. Aiming to partner with studios, rights organizations, and media platforms.
Leadership: CEO and co-founder Remya Nair Stephen has a background in tech and creative industries, and was a VP of operations at gaming startup CropBytes. Co-founder Ian McCann has expertise in deep learning and signal processing; he was a data scientist at Conversica and CTO at Steno.ai.
VC View from Austin Guyette: 'Rights enforcement and fraud detection is a hot topic given the rise of GenAI (Seattle-based Loti is also in this category). For high-profile artists, there is a world where this is a no-brainer! However, it's an open question if most of the value in this market accrues to law firms or to products like Audiori.'
Elementrailer
Founded: 2024
The business: Motorized electric trailers that help EV drivers reduce range loss. Also aims to provide fuel savings for internal combustion engine fleets during towing. Targeting commercial trailer fleets, municipal utilities, last-mile delivery services, and others. The company won a prize at the UW's recent Environmental Innovation Challenge.
Leadership: Founder and CEO Frank Lin is a former realtor and restaurant owner, and earned a masters degree in entrepreneurship this summer from the UW. Co-founders Julisa Cruz and Lillian Mitchell also graduated from the UW this year.
VC View: 'We're seeing a push to electrify commercial transport but this market is hotly contested. The value here seems to be in hardware patents and an exit to an incumbent who wants to acquire the technology is certainly possible.'
Fluidworks
Founded: 2024
The business: Voice-powered onboarding agent that integrates into existing software products and interacts through natural conversation. The idea is to replace static tooltips or lengthy product tours. The startup has a few customers and recently added nearly 90 companies to test its latest release.
Leadership: CEO and co-founder Jose Kuttan previously started and sold retail tech company WeavedIn to Paytm. His co-founders — Dilip Prasad, Jeph Alapat, and Jibin Scaria — also worked at WeavedIn.
VC View: 'Martech and CX are being re-imagined with GenAI and this is a good example of those trends. I'd encourage folks to chat with the agent on their website — if you extrapolate a bit this could be a really cool product! The signals coming of interactions with agents like this could be gold for companies — the billion-dollar question is how products like Fluidworks evolve from point solutions into broader platforms with incumbents and competitors already playing in adjacent areas.'
Pivotal Build
Founded: 2025
The business: Construction tech startup that wants to help improve communication for small and mid-sized teams. Aims to streamline updates, reduce rework errors and stay aligned across stakeholders — without needing to adopt project management software. The company is working with multiple design clients.
Leadership: CEO Jonathan Madamba has nearly three decades of experience in tech, including leadership stints at Software AG and T-Mobile, and has industry expertise in construction. Co-founder Jez Zapata specializes in sales and also worked at SADA, a cloud consultancy.
VC View: 'Construction is under-penetrated from a technology standpoint so there may be an opportunity here. That said, I signed up for this alpha product, played around with it, and still don't know what it does or what value it provides. A great first-mile product experience is key for SMB go-to-market so my hope is that their beta product improves on the current version.'
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