Looking back at prior honorees, the poster child is 10X Genomics, the Tri-Valley’s first home-grown unicorn (valued at $1 billion). But, it’s certainly not the only winner to exit successfully from the start-up phase.
Trov was recognized in 2018 and last year its technology was sold to The Travelers Companies, Inc. Terms were not disclosed, but it’s notable that Travelers has been around since 1853 (no typo, 170 years). It provides insurance for home, auto and business—it’s umbrella seems ubiquitous on television.
Trov was founded as an insurtech, technology companies looking to upend the traditional insurance model with digital products. These include: on-demand insurance, claims-chat, micro-duration policies, and all-digital user experiences. Prior to the transaction in February 2022, it also launched an embedded insurance platform that will allow companies to distribute insurance products in existing digital systems.
The press release noted that most Trov employees moved over to Travelers. Scott Walchek was the founder and CEO of Tr?v.
2017 honoree NeoTract of Pleasanton focuses on minimally invasive technology in the urology area. Later in 2017, it was sold to Teleflex for about $1 billion.
The product you may have seen advertised is the UroLift System treatment for men with enlarged prostate glands—that’s most men as they advance in years.
CEO Joe Catanese moved on to Calyxo, also based in Pleasanton, to work on technology to treat kidney stones differently. It closed its C Funding Round last year at $32.7 million.
Calyxo has developed the CVAC Aspiration System to remove kidney stones with irrigation and aspiration to avoid surgery.
In a press release announcing the funding round, Catanese said, “Kidney stone disease is a painful problem for patients, and it consumes vast amounts of healthcare resources each year. We believe our solutions will better meet will better meet the needs of kidney stone patients and transform the care of this condition.”
SAP, which has a major office in Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, acquired Dublin-based Callidus Software in 2018. Callidus was a GameChanger in 2016.
Executives said at the time that the CallidusCloud will fit into SAP’s software to create a customer management system that allowed SAP to compete in the estimated $46 billion market. It was integrated into SAP’s Hybris cloud portfolio. Prior to the acquisition, Callidus was growing rapidly, with its subscription revenue growing 31% to $198.2 million.
The public is welcome to join Innovation Tri-Valley to see its 2023 GameChangers on March 29 at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are available through its website.
