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Founded in 2016 by Mary Biggins and Katie Ghelli, MealPal (formerly known as MealPass) has facilitated more than 2 million reservations for lunch, and is already in 10 cities worldwide: NYC, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, Philadelphia, SF, Miami, London, Toronto, and Sydney. In February this year the company announced $15 million in Series A financing led by Comcast Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of Comcast Corp., with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Haystack Partners, and NextView Ventures. SnapMunk spoke to MealPal co-founder Mary Biggins. Can you describe Meal Pal in five words? I can do it in four words. Eat intelligently and affordably. What makes MealPal stand out from the noise? For most meals, consumers are looking for three things: great food, efficient to get, and affordable. With MealPal, we partner with great restaurants, making lunch efficient and affordable so that people can go into a restaurant, skip the line, pick…

Applying more intelligence and innovation to the way we source, manage, apply and analyze the energy used to power our planet is one of the most important tasks we could hope have taken on by our brightest entrepreneurs and startups. With help from folks like University of Missouri System, UMSL Accelerate and Capital Innovators, the future of energy innovation looks like a bright one.  Ameren Accelerator is a partnership between the University of Missouri System, USML Accelerate and Capital Innovators, and Ameren (a Fortune 500 utility company), intended to assess, mentor, and invest in energy technology startup companies. The entity is based out of St. Louis, and is ranked the 3rd best accelerator by Entrepreneur Magazine. The creators of the accelerator look to invest $100,000 in five to seven companies each year. Recently the Ameren Accelerator selected several companies to be part of their latest batch of startups to receive…

I got to see Metallica live in 2011. I was a good twenty rows from the stage, but I’m positive James Hetfield looked me straight in the eye when he sang “Nothing matters, no one else” from Fade to Black. Clearly, I was his favorite fan. Having a personal interaction with a celebrity like that one isn’t always accessible. It’s why BidAway has created a platform that gives fans a way to have unique experiences involving their idols. Who gets to be part of those experiences is decided based on the results of auctions and sweepstakes. BidAway keeps 20 percent of the proceeds, and the rest is given to charity. The NGOs that receive contributions from BidAway are chosen by the celebrities themselves.       Founder Luca Carlucci tells me that the team puts a great deal of thought both into choosing the right celebrities and fan experiences. When it…

This seems like a pretty busy year for Apple.  It’s almost like every month there’s a new feature that they’re announcing for either their next iPhone or some innovation that they’re finally getting behind.  Whether it be their plans for Augmented Reality, or designing the new Autonomous Car system, Apple really likes to think big.  And today is no different, as Apple is now testing 3D Facial Recognition software. With the release of the iPhone 8 steadily approaching, it makes sense that Apple would try and shove as many features into it as possible.  And it looks like Apple is trying to rush a 3D face scanner so they can add it to the new phone.  The sensor itself can scan a user’s face and unlock the phone within a few hundred milliseconds, and is designed to work even if the device is laying flat on a surface.  The intent…

Carrying a wallet is something almost everyone does, and it’s something most people don’t give much thought to. Despite being an essential element of daily routines, 30 million wallets are lost annually in the world? It might seem trivial, but technology is finally advancing to make wallets more advanced with a smart wallet.     Volterman is the world’s most powerful smart wallet with a few smart functions. The first feature of note is the built-in power bank which fully charges users’ smartphones on the go, both wirelessly and with a cable. It comes in multiple capacities ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 mAh. To help prevent users from losing their phone or their wallet, there’s a built-in Bluetooth alarm system which sends alerts if the phone or wallet leave a specific range. The built-in Wi-Fi hotspot helps to ensure users have internet access wherever they travel. On average the internet cost…

Could your desk ever be anything more than a cluttered mess of stationery, gadgets, cables and sundry other objects? Apparently, it can, according to Carnegie Mellon researchers Chris Harrison, Scott Hudson, and Robert Xiao. The team has created a system using which you can turn regular work desks into interactive surfaces on which you can use smartphone applications via augmented reality. Desktopography, as it’s called, is still a research project, but points towards the kind of technology we could have at our disposal in the near future.     The main idea behind Desktopography is to blur the lines between physical and virtual objects. As complex as that sounds, the system only really requires a depth sensor and a projector light to make that possible. Both of those components are housed within a standard light bulb fixture in the prototype created by the team. The purpose of the projector is…

Rings have become the form factor of choice for wearables that do all kinds of cool stuff. You can find a smart ring to track your calorie intake, to make payments, and even a smart ring using which long-distance couples can feel each other’s heartbeat. Token is a less creepy wearable that boasts a whole array of impressive features, including the ability to use it as a door lock, credit card, and car key. It launched last week, and is available for pre-order right now.     Setting up Token seems to be quite simple. You start by using the on-board fingerprint sensor to identify yourself as the owner. One ring can have only one authorized user, for obvious reasons. Once authorized, you can use Token’s mobile app to link your credit card, computer passwords, and any other smart access point. The ring can then be used to carry out…

As the last of the millennials leave college and head out into the real world, many of them have acquired the skills to make money, but are struggling with the saving part of the equation. According to CEO and co-founder of Exeq, Daniel Schwartz, 70% of millennials have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts and 60% of them live from paycheck to paycheck. Regardless of why millennials are lacking in the knowledge of how to properly save their hard-earned cash, it is a well-known problem and one that other tech startups have already tried to tackle. When you think about it, giving millennials an app to better manage their finances is a smart move. Millennials don’t necessarily trust banks, but they do trust technology. So, when they want guidance on how to spend their money, a digital financial advisor is the way to go. Daniel Schwartz’s Exeq is the latest personal finance…

When it comes to living in hot climates, there’s nothing better than having a cool breeze from an air conditioning system. Unfortunately, in many cases, these systems require significant amounts of power and energy – the costs of which add up significantly in hot climates where users need to run the AC continuously. The makers of Mistbox are looking to help reduce energy consumption with their connected device that pre-cools intake air to boost the user’s AC efficiency by 30%. By using sensors to monitor AC operation and climate conditions, Mistbox can optimize the mist and oversee the health of the user’s air conditioning system. Mistbox involves positioning nozzles around the AC condenser to create a fine water mist which evaporates to pre-cool the existing air. By using a proprietary combination of water treatment technologies, Mistbox ensures it doesn’t cause any damage to the user’s equipment. Rather than relying on…

Guess what? Now you can check how much gas you have in your bloodstream with a breathalyzer in the comfort of your own home. No, not for fun, of course, it is to find food that is good for your digestive system. It’s called AIRE, and it’s a breathalyzer for your diet.     AIRE was developed by the team at FoodMarble as an aid for people who are unsure if the food they eat reacts well to their digest system. The device is connected to the AIRE app which takes in the data and administers tests to see how your body is reacting to the food. When you eat certain things your body doesn’t agree with, it can cause gas which passes through the bloodstream and from there it goes into the lungs. Typically you’d need to go to a gastrologist for this procedure and AIRE certainly isn’t a replacement for that…

On-demand services are all the rage right now (thanks, Uber). Businesses understand that consumers want more convenient experiences and they want to order them with a simple click of a button. One of the industries that’s seeing a lot of use for this is the dry cleaning space with laundry services.   It’s no surprise then that on-demand laundry services have been popping up like crazy these past few years. Today we’re going to look at Rinse, an on-demand laundry service provider based out of San Francisco that’s been around since 2013, but just received a $14 million in funding (bringing their total to $23.5 million), signaling a major round of expansion is about to happen.     Rinse to Wash Away the Friction from Dry Cleaning One of Rinse’s co-founders, James Joun, grew up in a family in the dry cleaning business, so there was an inherent knowledge of the pain faced…

Toronto-based clinical image and knowledge-sharing healthcare app Figure 1, described as an ‘Instagram for doctors,’ has raised $10 million in funding in a round led by Kensington Capital Partners, with additional support from Samsung NEXT Ventures, John Hancock/Manulife Financial, Hedgewood, and WTI. Existing investors Union Square Ventures, Rho Canada Ventures, and Version One Ventures also participated. This is the fourth round of funding for the four-year-old startup and brings its total investment to $23 million.     Investment Focus With this new investment, Figure 1 plans to expand their knowledge network, and build upon their case intelligence using artificial intelligence to extract value from the thousands of medical cases in their library, starting with a feature to turn images of electrocardiograms into digital data. The company announced this feature this past weekend at the International Congress on Electrocardiology in Portland. At first, experts will be able to weigh in on the meaning…