Nearly one third of the companies that appear on the 2021 Triangle Tweener list are new arrivals, due to surpassing either $1 million in annual revenue in 2020 or having 10 or more full-time employees on payroll, found Triangle-based entrepreneur Scot Wingo in preparing the annual report on the startups that have graduated from their “early-stage” days but who have not yet become established companies with more than 500 employees or more than $80 million in annual revenue.

“I view the number of tweeners as an indication of the health of the middle of our funnel,” said Wingo in an exclusive interview with WRAL TechWire this week. “It’s never been fuller, so if say 5-10% of these companies make it to the bottom of the funnel, that means more great outcomes are in our future.”

If the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Triangle shifts that target to 10-20%, said Wingo, we could expect to see dramatic, parabolic growth.

Local entrepreneur releases 2021 Triangle “Tweener” list

Who’s new?

There are a few companies that are now based in the Triangle, having relocated their company to the region in 2020: Lolli, Fantasy Life, Pocket Study, and MapMyCustomers (which used to be based in the Triangle, moved to New York, and now has moved back to the Triangle).

But the majority of the 57 new entrants to the 2021 Triangle Tweener list, which only tracks technology companies that have generated $1 million or more in annual sales revenue or have hired 10 or more full-time employees, were already based in the region, and expanded during the year.

That includes companies like Nugget Comfort, which was already experiencing rapid growth prior to the pandemic, but demand for its kid-friendly furniture increased significantly throughout 2020.  The company, which expanded to a larger manufacturing facility, grew to meet demand, and even shifted their sales model to a lottery system in an attempt to democratize or at least randomize which of their customers could place orders whenever a new batch of their products were released for sale.

A full list of new entrants to the 2021 Triangle Tweener list is below, and Wingo’s database is searchable using the term “New for 2021!” published on Wingo’s Medium account.

  • AgEye Technologies
  • Alcove
  • Aries
  • BrightView Technologies
  • ChekHub
  • CloudFuze
  • Constellation Digital Partners
  • Cymatic.io
  • Demographics Pro
  • EDJX
  • Equity Shift
  • FantasyLife
  • Finmark
  • GIBLIB
  • Greenlight Health
  • Hexawise
  • Hi Fidelity Genetics
  • Home Lending Pal
  • Impact Karma
  • Impathiq
  • Instancy
  • Intervolve
  • JupiterOne
  • LabVoice
  • Lightforge Games
  • Loanwell
  • Lolli
  • MapMyCustomers
  • MapRecruit.ai
  • marGo
  • Matchwell
  • Mesur.io
  • Mrecord
  • Nugget Comfort
  • Pairwise Plants
  • Paragon Application Systems
  • Pocket Prep
  • Precision Fermentation
  • PublicInput.com
  • Quinsite
  • Schedule Pop
  • Seguno Software
  • Shipedge
  • Takeout Central
  • TeleSage
  • TopCourt
  • TraKid
  • TriggerMesh
  • Trulab
  • UserVoice
  • Vade Park
  • Vanguard Software
  • Vectra Automation
  • VoiceThread
  • WalletFi
  • Whitestar Communications
  • Zogo Finance

These Triangle “Tweeners” raised capital in 2020