well-positioned to harness, mimic and unleash that which has always been present. Silicon Valley-based Koniku blends the right ingredients of healthcare, technology, and biosecurity. A Shazaam for smells, the company’s central tech elegantly takes what already works amazingly well in the natural world (a dog’s sensory apparatus) and packages it into a small device that can seamlessly detect explosives, narcotics, and COVID in real-time. Beyondthesearenas,therevolutionaryunderlyingtech is broadly applicable, including for manufacturing, agriculture, defence, and others. Koniku partnered with early-investor Airbus for explosive detection and last month completed a successful deployment at SFO airport. Additionally, Koniku possesses the only platform to effectively and substantively detect fentanyl. COMMUNITY.COM SantaMonica-basedmessagingplatform, Community. com, provides a simple and effective way for brands, celebrities, and organisations to engage with customers, fans, and, yes, communities. The texting platform already includes 26 million consumers with over 3 billion messages sent over its platform in 2019. In short, direct texting yields very high conversion/engagement rates and provides an elevated communication channel as marketers seek ways to more genuinely and directly connect. Salesforce Ventures, Twilo, Live Nation & Sony Innovation Fund have all invested. Thematically, we feel curation tools will become increasing relevant for both businesses and customer sanity, in this age of content overload. PAYHAWK Sofia/London-based Payhawk offers an all-in-one financial management solution for businesses and has recently become the very first Bulgarian unicorn. By combining credit cards, payments, expenses, cash management, and pre-accounting into one integrated experience (and powered by premium Visa cards, dedicated IBANS, SEPA, and Faster Payments), Payhawk operationally takes small to mid-sized businesses to the next level. In November, the company raised $112m to grab share in the competitive corporate card space. About the Author Steven Barrow Barlow serves as the CFO of BINJ and co-runs Andon Okapi Holdings, an investment firm providing financial, operational and strategic support to founders with big ideas & unique tech. After a decade as an equity analyst on Wall Street covering the consumer and healthcare sectors, he co-founded Kallpod in 2014, a tech solutions provider for the hospitality & healthcare industries. Earlier Stage Ones toWatch While not yet unicorns, two earlier stage companieswe have our eye on, INO& Pallo, are well-positioned with both unique proprietary tech and sector relevance. Pallo is an all-in-one platform designed specifically for freelancers that helps users manage all personal and business finances, from money management to taxes. INO has innovated a patented, all-natural, and impact resistant material composite that can be used as an alternative to synthetic foam in a range of products such as helmets or to protect valuable products during shipment. INO’s founder suffered a life-threatening head trauma injury and wound up partnering with the neurosurgeon who saved his life, along with a renowned Oxford materials scientist, to develop an all-natural, next-generation solution. Smoke or Hot Air? As we left the office recently, with railroads, the Commodore & unicorns on the brain, we noticed large columns of smoke sadly lingering above. We drifted to thoughts of a locomotive’s smokestack and what that signified—output, a tangible thing that indicated progress, interconnectivity, commerce, evidence of a new country and economy being built. As we moved onto the sidewalk and gained a full view of the sky, the letters NFT were revealed as a worn-out crop-duster sputtered above. We stopped and pondered what that faux marketing smoke signified, if anything. Alas, as the three letters faded to nothing, Def Leppard’s Hysteria blared from a shiny Tesla cruising by.
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