Anand Macherla
Mar 7, 2025
From upstarts engineering soil to industry veterans making video games, these promising ventures are tackling big challenges and proving that innovation thrives here.
Good morning, Baltimore! It’s time once again to recognize the startups shaping the future of our city.
Technical.ly’s annual RealLIST Startups highlights the rising young companies we believe will make waves in each of our markets. They’ve shown impressive traction, novel solutions and the potential to become major players in their industries and regions.
To build this list, we reviewed our reporting, tapped into the local tech community and collected public nominations. We also took time to validate the nominees and contact them for any clarifications. In many cases, we saw the nominees in public at our local pitch competitions, showcases and demo days, getting to see how they engage with their communities.
Eligible startups needed to fulfill these requirements:
Founded no earlier than 2022 (though we know founding dates can be tricky)
Earns most of its revenue by selling an innovative product or service (no consulting firms)
Has shown some track record of success
Remained independent, without having undergone a significant exit. That means it hasn’t been acquired, merged or gone public.
Headquartered or has a founder based in the Baltimore area
The final honorees span industries such as biotech, logistics, edtech, climate tech and AI — sectors that define Baltimore’s entrepreneurial landscape. They also join the company of prior startups from 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017.
Beyond the founders and startups, this RealLIST also reflects the community around them. Many of the nominators were local ecosystem champions and connectors that help surface the next generation of impactful organizations. The connective tissue of information and resource sharing they form makes for an abundant ecosystem. Thanks to those who submitted nominations and nudged founders to fill out the survey.
Without further ado, Baltimore, here are your 2025 Technical.ly RealLIST Startups.
1) Cursive Technology, Inc.
• Founded 2022
• Headquartered in Baltimore, MD
• 1 employee
• Capital raised: Bootstrapped
• Valuation: n/a
• Notable investors: Joseph Thibault
Cursive Technology is an edtech startup that uses typing biometrics to verify the authorship of written text. The company launched its API and learning management system integration in November 2024 and now serves over 28,000 students worldwide. Founded by Joseph Thibault, Cursive focuses on the writing process to foster transparency, integrity and trust for both authors and their audiences.
2) Cohado
• Founded 2022
• Headquartered in Baltimore, MD
• 1 employee
• Capital raised: Bootstrapped
• Valuation: n/a
• Notable investors: Paulo Gregory
Designer, inventor and community organizer Paulo Gregory recently created the collaborative game Cohado (grown out of his longer-standing organization of the same name) to foster innovation, sustainability and cooperative systems change. The framework has been applied locally to initiatives like Baltimore’s Black Butterfly Network and is now expanding nationally with a gamified, multiplayer virtual experience set to launch in 2025.
3) The Laundry Basket
• Founded 2022
• Headquartered in Baltimore, MD
• 5 employees
• Capital raised: $150,000
• Valuation: $1,000,000
• Notable investors: n/a
The Laundry Basket is a technology-driven laundry and logistics company with an optimized pickup and delivery model. Founded by Hyacinth Tucker, an experienced logistics professional, the startup uses local laundry facilities at low-use times, creating additional revenue streams for existing businesses and economic opportunities for veterans and returning citizens. The DC Startup and Tech Week pitch competition winner already has traction in the DMV, Ohio and Toronto.
4) Sustainabli
• Founded 2023
• Headquartered in Baltimore, MD
• 6 employees
• Capital raised: $200,000
• Valuation: $1,000,000
• Notable investors: University of Maryland, College Park , TEDCO, University System of Maryland
Sustainabli helps healthcare and research facilities reduce energy waste by integrating Internet-of-things (IoT) -based monitoring systems into commonly used and existing lab equipment. Its flagship product is a sensor for fume hoods that’s already deployed in 12 buildings across North America.
5) RhizeUp
• Founded 2024
• Headquartered in Freeland, MD
• 2 employees
• Capital raised: $50,500
• Valuation: n/a
• Notable investors: State of Maryland
RhizeUp tackles phosphate runoff and minimizes algal bloom in local waterways by engineering rhizobium bacteria. Cofounders Shumvobi Mitra and Ulysses Matricciani are still in high school, making them the youngest cofounders on this list. Rhize Up is a recipient of the inaugural Pava LaPere Innovation award.
6) Fetal Therapy Technologies
• Founded 2024
• Headquartered in Baltimore, MD
• 2 employees
• Capital raised: $120,000
• Valuation: n/a
• Notable investors: n/a
Spun out of a Johns Hopkins undergraduate course in 2022, cofounders Selena Shirkin and Eric McAlexander’s microsurgical device company aims to improve fetal surgery safety through instruments and training models designed specifically for the uterine environment. The company’s flagship product is the FetalCare port system.
7) Uplift Geosystems
• Founded 2023
• Headquartered in Baltimore, MD
• 4 employees
• Capital raised: n/a
• Valuation: n/a
• Notable investors: n/a
Uplift Geosystems reduces metal refining processes’ environmental impact by focusing on acid-base recycling technologies to reclaim critical materials. Founder and CEO Daniel Nothaft is an alum of the Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator, where COO Kaveh Issapour worked with the company as an entrepreneur in residence. They are currently advancing their technology through the NSF I-Corps Program. Uplift Geosystems’ solutions are aimed at businesses and government agencies looking to achieve net-zero targets.
8) Drio
• Founded 2024
• Headquartered in Baltimore, MD
• No. of employees2
• Capital raised: $50,000
• Valuation: n/a
• Notable investors: State of Maryland
The “Drio duo,” Hazel Geary and Rachel McFadden, brought over a decade of experience building websites for purpose-driven organizations into WholeSite. The company’s AI-assisted platform is designed to help small businesses create professional websites with integrated copy, design and strategy. As organizers rooted in feminist systems of change, Geary and McFadden bring a uniquely accessibility-focused lens to their startup work.
9) Plainr
• Founded 2021
• Headquartered in Baltimore, MD
• not yet public employees
• Capital raised: $433,000
• Valuation: n/a
• Notable investors: Techstars
Plainr creates AI-driven solutions for private equity and related firms to better process market data and generate intelligence. Founded by Lydia Ofori, who has more than 25 years of experience across private equity, hedge funds and traditional assets, Plainr is tackling inefficiencies in investment decision-making to surface insights faster. The TEDCO portfolio company moved from New York to Baltimore while participating in the Techstars Equitech Accelerator.
10) Midsummer Studios
• Founded 2023
• Headquartered in Hunt Valley, MD
• 13 employees
• Capital raised: $6,000,000
• Valuation: n/a
• Notable investors: Transcend Fund, TIRTA Ventures, Betaworks, Krafton, Inc
Midsummer Studios is an independent game development company cofounded by ex-Firaxis Games employees Jake Solomon and Will Miller. The company develops life simulation games that give players the ability to craft and pursue narrative experiences, giving communities more memorable and reflective play experiences. The company publicly emerged in 2024 with a $6 million seed round, a leadership team with significant industry experience and a commitment to company culture that values work-life balance.