40 Rockstar AI for Impact Tech Startups You Need to Know in 2023

Here is a list of 40 rising AI for Impact changemakers you need to know.  

The Omdena “AI Adoption Leaders Series” comprises game-changing startups, stories, and thought-leadership pieces from leading impact ventures solving real-world problems.

Social entrepreneurship is an emerging phenomenon that will enable companies to fulfill their service delivery and for customers to ethically gain from the benefits they receive. 

Is AI for Good dead? Why is 2023 the year of AI for Impact?

AI for Good is a term that has become widespread. However, AI for Good is often confused with being a purely non for profit and charitable application of AI, which is not the entire truth. That is why at Omdena our focus is on creating AI solutions that generate a positive impact, while profit can play an important role, too. 

Positive impact is defined by products and services that are created to solve societal problems. It reflects the shift from reducing an organization’s negative footprint to achieving a significant net positive impact on society and the planet. AI for Impact related industries are growing rapidly. 

According to Precedence Research, the estimated global AI market size was US$ 87.04 billion in 2021, and it is expected to hit US$ 1,597.1 billion by 2030 with a registered CAGR of 38.1% from 2022 to 2030. While these are substantial growth predictions, there are many industries where profit can be combined with a highly positive social and environmental impact.

For example, the healthcare segment is expected to overtake the advertising & media segment during the forecasted period. The increased adoption of AI in various applications, such as virtual nursing assistants, robotic surgery, clinical trials, automated image diagnosis, and so on, is significantly fostering the growth of this segment. Furthermore, other industries, like clean energy, agriculture, transportation, and logistics, all have high-impact use cases and real-world applications, out of which we will see many improved ones and new applications arising in 2023. 

If you want to get inspired by dozens of AI for Impact case studies, check out Omdena’s case studies here. 

40 Leading Startups Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for a Better Future

1. Andiamo

The Andiamo Treatment Platform includes a range of digital and non-digital tools for a better family and clinician experience, including the Avanti platform, which uses AI and digital twin simulation to design personalized treatments.

Andiamo’s initial Treatment Range allows the clinician to use the Andiamo Tools and Avanti platform to digitally create a personalized prescription, create an AI digital twin that simulates the prescription outcome and it designs, using automation, a safe medical device. They manufacture and fit a treatment called an ankle foot orthosis using additive manufacturing.

Funding: Pre-Seed.

2. Athena Security

Athena is a modern security provider that provides smart surveillance systems. In a world where threats can vary from biological to physical, it is important to ensure that organizations are secured from all perspectives. 

Athena provides security protection in the form of a series of packages. These include: Temperature Checking, Gun Detection, and Concealed Weapons Detection. The best form of protection is always hidden, and many organizations such as casinos, grocery stores, department stores, and any place where crowds gather are covered. 

Funding:  $5.5M in seed funding led by Pathfinder.

3. ReSpo.Vision

ReSpo Vision is an AI company that is dedicated to advancing the sporting industry. Our top-notch Computer Vision and Machine Learning algorithms can watch any football game recorded by a single TV camera and harvest detailed 3D tracking data of 20+ body parts of all players and the ball 60 times per second.

ReSpo Vision utilizes video technology to pool vast quantities of video data, and multiple functions such as full 3-D optical tracking of players, performance assessments, and provide insights and recommendations. 

Funding: Pre-Seed.

 

4. Hyfe

Acoustic epidemiology is the next frontier in healthcare. Coughs, sneezes, wheezing, snoring, sniffles, hoarse speech. These sounds contain essential diagnostic information for physicians. Equally informative are subtle changes that indicate the onset of an illness, its convalescence, its long-term impacts, and the risk of future outcomes.

Hyfe is an acoustic AI that runs on any phone and detects and classifies coughs. It is the most sophisticated AI cough classifier on the market, used daily by researchers, medical professionals, and thousands of regular people worldwide.

Funding: Self-Funded.

5. Deep Medical Therapeutics

Deep Medical Therapeutics is a medical technology company that builds and deploys artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that optimize healthcare for Africa. The organization uses its solutions to empower African governments, clinicians, scientists, and pharmaceutical companies to gain insights into and treat new and existing diseases across Africa.

6. Right-Hear

RightHear is an advanced accessibility solution that uses a unique three-component technology to help grant blind and visually impaired individuals the independence they deserve by providing them with tools to orient themselves in public spaces better.

RightHear’s vision of making the world more accessible to all individuals is closer than ever before, with nearly 3,000 accessible spots in over 600 venues (and counting) across the globe. Some of their partners include The Azrieli Group, Chicago French Market, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, McDonalds Israel, Shufersal Supermarket Company, and Tel Aviv University.

RightHear is a free app for its users on iOS and Android.

Funding: Non-Equity Assistance.

7. Hazen.ai

Hazen solutions uses computer vision to power smart algorithms that can. Functions include Comprehensive Monitoring, Advanced Technology, and other functions designed to ensure road safety. Custom solutions. Hazen has developed AI-powered camera analytics rather than expensive RADAR or LiDAR deployments. Competitively priced and feature-rich.

Safety is paramount for us to manage. With camera systems that can forecast various traffic scenarios, Hazen’s technology will aid in gaining the advantage of predicting and avoiding scenarios such as traffic pile-ups or others as a result of any adverse conditions .

Funding:  Seed funding from Saudi Aramco’s VC arm Wa’ed.

8. Rhino Health

Rhino Health’s platform allows healthcare AI developers and medical researchers to seamlessly access diverse and disparate datasets and use them to create better AI algorithms. Simple and scalable data access accelerates the creation, validation, and improvement of AI models that drive efficiency and improve outcomes across the healthcare industry.

Rhino Health’s approach is grounded in federated learning, making it possible for developers and researchers to collaborate across academic medical centers and researchers without ever moving data, transferring ownership, or risking patient privacy.

Funding: $5 million in Seed funding led by LionBird Ventures.

9. Latitudo 40

Latitudo 40’s technology is designed for global resilience and utilizes data science for the planet’s health and future. Latitudo 40’s technology allows you to identify KPIs for environmental sustainability and ESG policies and quickly track the progress achieved. 

How it works: Fully automated urban sustainability solution helping organizations transform their environment and social goals into action by systemizing the end-to-end process. 

Funding: $1.1 Million in Pre-Seed Funding.

10. Quibim

In a world where patients still die because they get diagnosed too late or receive ineffective treatments, something needs to be done. Quibim tackles this head-on with Quibim Precision®, the whole-body imaging ecosystem that understands every body part. Quibim unveils the human body in its intricacies and uniqueness to detect disease signatures and monitor biological systems with the highest resolution – allowing the deconstruction and reconstruction of the entire body. Quibim mines medical images to extract critical and often evasive health indicators: quantitative imaging biomarkers.

Funding: €8m to develop its Covid-19 detection software in a seed funding round co-led by Amadeus Capital Partners and Adara Ventures, with participation by Apex Ventures, Partech, Crista Galli Ventures, and existing shareholders, including Tech Transfer UPV.

11. Greyparrot

Through AI-powered computer vision software, Greyparrot provides in-depth data insights to stakeholders in the resources and waste sector – giving them the vital information they previously could not access.

Greyparrot’s systems are designed to automate waste composition analysis at MRFs, PRFs, and other reprocessors. Greyparrot’s AI Waste Recognition System is deployed globally on moving conveyor belts in sorting facilities to automate waste composition analysis to monitor, audit, and sort large waste flows at scale.

Funding: Seed funding –  £1.825 million (~$2.2M).

12. Dyad Medical

Dyad’s software applications support both treatment decision-making in the clinic and analysis in research, enabling researchers to optimize observations and conclusions. Dyad’s AI for Good initiatives involves: substantially decreasing misdiagnosis and expert disagreement, minimizing healthcare costs by making Dyad’s Automated Algorithms a part of the diagnosis workflow, and providing universal access to expert-level diagnosis.

Funding: $3.5 million in seed funding.

13. Calipsa

Video is one of the most prevalent mediums for communication. Data mining has enabled data to be extracted from pools of information available via the internet. Hundreds of companies are now extracting more value from their video systems with Calipsa tools, advanced video analytics for real-time security, and forensic analysis.

Calipsa’s AI software helps control rooms leverage event-based video to enable more effective security operations. Unlike other analytics they  analyze frames, not video, saving on time and bandwidth, which in turn benefits the customer.

Funding: $1.5 million Seed Funding.

14. Monk AI

Monk AI provides Powered Vehicle Inspection that brings accurate automated vehicle inspection reports. Within seconds. Monk AI’s, AI for good services include: automated car reports, automatic vehicle inspection, normalization of vehicle inspection data, and access to collision damage estimates. 

Cars are assets that are constantly changing in value. With the right inspection tools, the valuation of your car will always be accurate.

Funding: $2.4 million in three rounds. Latest funding is Non-Equity Based Assistance.

15. Animals.ai

Animals.Ai is one of the best high-tech startups in the Öresund region, Sweden. The organization’s  aims to empower the livestock industry through AI & IoT solutions. Animals.ai is an expert at developing algorithms based on computer vision and animal behaviors. Animals.ai offers AI services that can turn dummy cameras into intelligent assistants that look after your animals 24/7 and interpret their body language to insight reports in real-time.

Animals.ai believe in a world where all farm animals can express their natural behaviors and spend as much time as possible outdoors, living good lives.

16. Rocket Doctor 

Rocket Doctor is a digital health marketplace bringing an advanced doctor’s office into patients’ homes. The company provides a secure, cloud-based, turn-key platform allowing physicians to quickly and easily launch and operate their independent virtual clinics. 

Rocket Doctor offers patients at home, same-day, 24/7 access to fully-licensed, board-certified MDs within a few simple clicks. Services are currently available to California, Ontario, Alberta, and BC residents.

Funding:  $3.8 million in funding with $1.1 million of pre-seed funding.

17. AiCare

AiCare is an intelligence-driven data science company focused on mobility. The organization turns motion data into usable insights that provide more personalized engagements leading to safer, more sustainable mobility experiences.

Prevention is better than cure. AiCare solutions improve driver awareness, reduce accidents, and prevent accidents before they happen.

Funding: Undisclosed. Funding acquired via private investors.

18. Exheus

Exheus is a solution that analyzes the expression of genes using Artificial Intelligence to determine what happens in your body at a specific moment,

Through the extraction of blood samples, the sequencing of the RNA, and the subsequent treatment of the data, a dashboard is generated with all the information regarding the alteration of the metabolic pathways related to the performance, nutrition and health of the individuals analyzed.

Funding: Undisclosed. Combination of Grants, Angel Investor Funding, and Accelerator funding.

19. Bankuish

Bankuish works to improve the lives of freelancers and gig workers by providing a path to full financial inclusion. The organization is bridging the gap between gig workers and financial institutions. Bankuish platform allows users to leverage their work history to demonstrate their creditworthiness and access pre-approved loans and other financial services. 

Users can also use the app to grow their credit score and reach their financial goals. They’ve de-risked the process of lending to gig workers for traditional banks, allowing them to discover new customers, improve customer relationships, and increase productivity.

Funding: Undisclosed. Pre-Seed.

20. MixCare Health

MixCare Health is a health tech SaaS solution targeting the well-being of employees. The organization’s vision is to provide a digitalized, affordable and flexible well-being solution for companies, allowing employees to drive their engagement and health. MixCare Health is a Cyberport incubated startup supported and funded by the HKSAR government.

MixCare Health helps to improve the health of employees and increase productivity. It’s particularly good  for SME employees, freelancers, and their family members.

Funding: MixCare Health last raised $15k at a $2M valuation.

21. Medorion

With Behavioral Science best practices and insights from clinical parameters derived from claims data, Medorion’s SaaS solution helps healthcare organizations develop, manage, and track highly personalized communication plans. 

Health Plans can simplify, streamline, and optimize their communication plans with the solution’s intuitive and straightforward actions that transform what is traditionally a cumbersome point solution-based process.

Funding: MedOrion has raised $8.8m in 5 funding rounds (Venture – Series Unknown). 

22. Scalarr

With Scalarr, mobile app developers and ad networks worldwide can prevent attribution fraud, bots and emulators, incentive injections, attribution fraud, and more. Fraudsters can be stopped before they ruin the product economy with high accuracy and proactive alerts.

Funding: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and three other investors invested $7,500,000 in Scalarr in its Series A round.

23. Vamstar

Vamstar, a newly-founded company, utilizes sourcing, procurement, artificial intelligence, and data science to reshape how health-based companies find and work with suppliers. 

They are the AI-driven supply chain platform of all buyer and supplier intelligence and enable commercial professionals from medical technology and pharmaceutical companies to more easily identify market opportunities, analyze real-time data insights, and connect to both clinical and corporate sources. 

Funding: The latest funding was raised on Jun 22, 2022, from a Series A round, bringing their total funding to $9.8M.

24. Antidote Health

Antidote Health offers an AI-based health platform that streamlines the process of a patient receiving the proper treatment. With this platform, Antidote Health streamlines the screenings process and automatically replaces what the doctor might need to do in that given situation. 

In addition to the advantages of a standard telehealth platform, Antidote Health’s platform was designed to address the additional aspect of social health, and to create a health ripple effect, passing from doctors to patients, to families and communities that feedback in a positive manner for everyone involved: patients, doctors, and the communities they live in.

Funding: The company has raised a total of $36M over four rounds of funding. Their latest funding was raised on Aug 10, 2022, from a Venture – Series Unknown round.

25. Samdesk

With SAMdesk, newsrooms can turn unstructured social media into actionable insight and awareness. Social content can be curated, collaborated on, searched, annotated, verified, processed, and published and told through social media. During an emergency, every second counts – millions can be lost in just a few minutes. 

Emergency responders, corporate security managers, and public safety officials must have accurate and relevant data about an emergency event as it unfolds. However, traditional news media and data analysts are expensive, slow, and error-prone in obtaining this information.

Funding: A Series A round of funding was raised by Samdesk on Sep 29, 2021, bringing their total funding to $15.5 million.

27. contextflow

contextflow provides comprehensive, AI-based support for all things chest CT: ILD, COPD, and lung cancer. Its computer-aided detection system ADVANCE Chest CT offers lung nodule detection & tracking of changes over time, quantitative and qualitative analysis of 8 key image patterns, and 3D image search for 19 image patterns.

By integrating new technology from partner RevealDx, nodules can be further characterized, detecting lung cancer earlier and reducing costs (JACR 9/22). contextflow ADVANCE Chest CT also includes a TIMELINE feature that even quantifies and visualizes nodules over time, allowing physicians to follow treatment progress easily and efficiently.

Funding: contextflow has so far received a total of €12M+ in funding from both public and private sources. It raised nearly €7M in Series A funding back in September, 2021, one of the largest Series A fundings for European healthtech companies that year.

28. Humanising Autonomy

Located in London, Humanising Autonomy is changing how machines understand humans. They are building the global standard for human-machine interactions. 

The company develops technology that accurately and ethically predicts human behavior through customer-centric product design, proven engineering methodologies, and one of the most extensive proprietary human behavior data sets. 

Funding: The team has received a total of $17.2M in funding over eight rounds, including $8M in a recent Series A.

29. Alcemy Tech

In 2018, Alcemy was founded on the belief that CO2 reductions and cost reductions go hand in hand in cement and concrete production. As early as the production process, cement and concrete producers can receive precise quality predictions using Alcemy’s software. 

To mitigate the impact of fluctuations, their AI identifies which production parameters need to be adjusted, allowing, for the first time, to optimize cement and concrete quality before delivery. 

Funding: Alcemy raised $10.1M over two funding rounds. They raised their most recent round, Series A, on Sep 9, 2022.

30. Diversio

Diversio’s mission is to employ data and creativity to improve organizational inclusivity. The idea is that people  can measure the things they  work on and track the progress as they get completed. Half of the Diversio  team immigrated from abroad, so they speak over ten languages. 

The team  have degrees in computer engineering, law, business, and kinesiology. The founders have experience in consulting, law, academia, business, operations, and technology. These teams have witnessed first-hand how inclusive teams have better outcomes and positively affect their earnings.

Funding: A Series A round of funding was raised on Jan 20, 2022, by Diversio, totaling $6.6M in funding over two rounds.

31. Copyleaks

The Copyleaks service leverages the latest AI-driven plagiarism detection and content recognition tools. Do not just compare word-for-word plagiarism. Ensure that meaning is being plagiarized by utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. 

They are featuring open-source API, integration with LMS, MS word, Google docs, cloud computing, military-grade 256-bit encryption for data safety, in-depth search technology, duplicate file finder tool, and a mobile app with OCR technology.

Funding: Copyleaks, Inc. has obtained a total of $7.3 million over three rounds of funding. It is noteworthy to mention that the latest $7.3 million round was raised on May 24, 2022, after their latest series A round.

32. Gradyent

Delivery of Gradyent°, a cloud platform with Artificial Intelligence that improves heat efficiency by 3 to 5%. Gradyent has the ambition to provide District Heating companies with assistance in applying new technologies through their Digital Twin, reducing energy consumption significantly. 

The company plans to decrease the emission of greenhouse gasses by preventing more than 2.5 million tons of CO2 per year and increasing profits in the energy sector by more than 3B€ while ensuring that some gas pipelines are co-owned by the public and cutting annual usage by 1 billion cubic meters. 

Funding: Gradyent has raised a total of €11.9M in funding, the most recent of which came on 16 Aug, 2022, in a Series A round.

33. PlanetWatchers

PlanetWatchers aims to tell the story of every field, saving our clients time and money by enhancing policy and claims validation.

Focusing exclusively on the crop insurance industry in North America, PlanetWatchers works with crop insurers and leverages a combination of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), optical imagery, and multiple years of historic data to increase the efficiency of policy creation and claims resolution.

Backed by Seraphim Capital, the global leader in SpaceTech investment, PlanetWatchers’ accurate and efficient analysis turns months of manual assessment into minutes of automated analysis.

Funding: PlanetWatchers has so far received a total of $15.5M in funding in six rounds. Their latest round of funding, Series A, was successfully funded on Sep 26, 2022.

34. The Routing Company

This startup is setting up a platform to enable shuttle and bus operators to offer their routes in the form of on-demand and dynamically routed service, which is attracting a significant portion of the estimated $30B USD market and capitalizing on the increasing reliance on both e-hailing and dwindling car ownership. 

Based on five years of research in MIT’s Ph.D. program, Routable AI uses a patented routing algorithm and a software solution that provides a 10x better service than currently used ones. The program offers optimization opportunities, and the system has been demonstrated to lower fleet sizes by as much as 80% due to the more efficient routing service.

Funding: The Routing Company has garnered $20 million in investment over three rounds, and its latest funding came on Mar. 21, 2022.

35. Huma.AI

Huma.AI offers a business intelligence platform for automating healthcare. As a bridge between system silos, the company improves (if not eliminates) inefficiency by enabling “mere mortals” to use everyday language to gain insights and take action.

Funding: Huma.AI raised $11.9M in funds across four rounds before launching. They were last funded in 2022 by a Non-equity Assistance round.

36. Credo AI

Credo AI is a comprehensive AI governance product that enables people to mitigate the ethical, business, and technical risks related to using artificial intelligence.

As of its launch, the company has pioneered a responsible AI platform that enables context-driven, comprehensive, and continuous governance, oversight, and accountability.

Funding: In total, Credo AI has raised $18.3M in funding over two rounds. Their most recent round of funding was raised on May 17, 2022.

37. Soter Analytics

To avoid workplace injuries and improve productivity, Soter is developing the most comprehensive safety analytics platform to help industrial enterprises. The technology consists of wearable technology, AI for vision processing, and algorithms for turning huge data sets into useful information.

It has always been Soter’s core focus to supply businesses with the proper insight at the right time to make the right decision. So far, Soter has demonstrated that their solution can reliably help industrial workplaces reduce their injury rates by more than 50%. 

Funding: As of Apr 19, 2022, Soter Analytics has raised $13.8M in funding over four rounds.

38. Fyld.AI

FYLD brings real-time, remote site visibility to field force operations by enabling data-driven decisions to be made. The company maximizes visibility and allows decision-makers to leverage the data collected in the field to develop the best plan. 

Their method of moving from a reactive mode to an anticipated and systematic model leads to high ROI for their customers, who see significant gains within a matter of weeks, within six weeks in the best cases. The gain is multiplied by leveraging a continuous data-collection process and cross-departmental breakdown that enhances customer ROI.

Funding: It was a Series A round raised on Nov 30, 2021, raised a total of £10M in funding.

39. Grandperspective

To detect toxic and flammable gasses at industrial sites, Grand Perspective provides a solution that screens vast areas and complex infrastructures. 

The founding team combines 25 years of experience in remote sensing systems construction, application, funding, and management with Grandperspective’s 20-person workforce.

Funding: It has raised a total of €7M in funding over a total of 1 round. The first round of this was an A-round. This round took place on Oct 17, 2022.

40. Virtual Peaker

The Louisville, Kentucky-based company Virtual Peaker offers a SaaS platform for managing residential electricity through IoT devices. 

With the most friendly distributed energy resources platform on the planet, modern utilities can accelerate grid modernization. Three robust suites, one scalable platform. 

Funding: Virtual Peak has obtained funding worth $19.8M, distributed in three rounds so far, including $19.8M on Feb. 17th, 2022,  in a Series A round.