How Startups Stepped Up in 2022

After muddling through the global pandemic in 2021, entrepreneurs emerged in 2022 ready to transform the way people live, learn, and work. Through the MongoDB for Startups program, we got a close-up view of their progress. What we observed was a good indication of how critical data is to delivering the transformative experiences users expect.

Data access vs. data governance

The increasing importance of data in the digital marketplace has created a conflict that a handful of startups are working to solve: Granting access to data to extract value from it while simultaneously protecting it from unauthorized use. In 2022, we were excited to work with promising startups seeking to strike a balance between these competing interests.

Data access service provider Satori enables organizations to accelerate their data use by simplifying and automating access policies while helping to ensure compliance with data security and privacy requirements. At most organizations, providing access to data is a manual process often handled by a small team that's already being pulled in multiple directions by different parts of the organization. It's a time-consuming task that takes precious developer resources away from critical initiatives and slows down innovation.

Data governance is a high priority for organizations because of the financial penalties of running afoul of data privacy regulations and the high cost of data breaches. While large enterprises make attractive targets, small businesses and startups in particular need to be vigilant because they can less afford financial and reputational setbacks.

San Francisco-based startup Vanta is helping companies scale security practices and automate compliance for the most prevalent data security and privacy regulatory frameworks. Its platform gives organizations the tools they need to automate up to 90% of the work required for security audits.

Futurology

The Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and natural language processing (NLP) remain at the forefront of innovation and are only beginning to fulfill their potential as transformative technologies. Through the MongoDB for Startups program, we worked with several promising ventures that are leveraging these technologies to deliver game-changing solutions for both application developers and users.

Delaware-based startup Qubitro helps companies bring IoT solutions to market faster by making the data collected from mobile and IoT devices accessible anywhere it's needed. Qubitro creates APIs and SDKs that let developers activate device data in applications. With billions of devices producing massive amounts of data, the potential payoff in enabling data-driven decision making in modern application development is huge.

London-based startup Concured uses AI technology to help marketers know what to write about and what's working for themselves and their competitors. It also enables organizations to personalize experiences for website visitors. Concured uses NLP to generate semantic metadata for each document or article and understand the relationship between articles on the same website.

Another London-based startup using AI and NLP to deliver transformative experiences is Semeris. Analyzing legal documents is a tedious, time-consuming process, and Semeris enables legal professionals to reduce the time it takes to extract information from documentation. The company’s solution creates machine learning (ML) models based on publicly available documentation to analyze less seen or more private documentation that clients have internally

The language we use in day-to-day communication says a lot about our state of mind. Sydney-based startup Pioneera looks at language and linguistic markers to determine if employees are stressed out at work or at risk for burnout. When early warning signs are detected, the person gets the help they need to reduce stress, promote wellness, and improve productivity confidentially and in real time.

Technologies like AR and VR are transforming learning for students. Palo Alto-based startup Inspirit combines 3D and VR instruction to create an immersive learning experience for middle and high school students. The platform helps students who love science engage with the subject matter more deeply and those who dislike it to experience it in a more compelling format.

No code and low code

The startup space is rich with visionary thinkers and ideas. But the truth is that you can't get far with an idea if you don't have access to developer talent, which is scarce and costly in today's job market. We've worked with a couple of companies through the MongoDB for Startups program that are helping entrepreneurs breathe life into their ideas with low- and no-code solutions for building applications and bringing them to market.

Low- and no-code platforms enable users with little or no coding background to satisfy their own development needs. For example, Alloy Automation is a no-code integration solution that integrates with and automates ecommerce services, such as CRM, logistics, subscriptions, and databases. Alloy can automate SMS messages, automatically start a workflow after an online transaction, determine if follow-up action should be taken, and automate actions in coordination with connected apps.

Another example is Thunkable, a no-code platform that makes it easy to build custom mobile apps without any advanced software engineering knowledge or certifications. Thunkable's mission is to democratize mobile app development. It uses a simple drag-and-drop design and powerful logic blocks to give innovators the tools they need to breathe life into their app designs.

The startup journey

Although startups themselves are as diverse as the people who launch them, all startup journeys begin with the identification of a need in the marketplace. The MongoDB for Startups program helps startups along the way with free MongoDB Atlas credits, one-on-one technical advice, co-marketing opportunities, and access to a vast partner network.