When selecting the companies way back in January, our team came to a few realizations. One of the most prominent was this:

“The realization that the next tech behemoth to call Philly home won’t be lured here. It needs to grow here, elevate its employees here, pay its taxes here and let its impact stretch beyond just a few Center City blocks. The 2019 cohort of realLIST companies represents a step in that direction.”

Below are those 10 companies we felt helped identify and solidify Philly’s tech presence in 2019, with updates about what they’ve been up in the past six months.

(See 2018’s honorees here — plus that year’s check-in on their progress — and 2017’s here.)

1. Crossbeam

CEO Robert Moore wrote to us saying he’s hype about the progress the data analytics startup team has made: “It’s thrilling to see real companies using our product out in the wild and seeing real value as a result,” he said.

This year, its data analytics platform has gone live and onboarded about 100 companies (including some local ones); released products; been featured on the “How I Raised It” podcast; and won first prize at PACT’s Phorum demo pit.

On Moore’s to-do list? Hiring about 10 more team members this year.

2. Amino

The blockchain adtech platform “released a major product update with a flurry of new features and integrations that further help advertisers make sense of their media buys,” Director of Marketing Nikki Khanna told us. 

The company also brought on a new addition to Amino’s board of directors, added more brands and agencies to its roster and expanded its network of advertising technology partners.

“We have illuminated hundreds of millions of media dollars and our plan for the rest of 2019 is to see that amount go up while helping more advertisers take control of their digital advertising,” Khanna said.

 3. QuotaPath

Founder and CEO AJ Bruno said the software platform aimed at sales professionals is launching its flagship product, a platform designed to help salespeople calculate and track their commission-based earnings and quota attainment, on Aug. 1 (today!).

For the past 10 months, the product has been in “early access,” gating entry so that the team could build relationships with early adopters and use their feedback to “build, iterate and improve,” the company said.

Since we feted QuotaPath in January, the team has also raised $3.5 million, doubled its employee headcount and had a company kickoff in Philadelphia where it flew its Austin employees up for a hackathon and a day of strategic sessions.

4. NaturAll Club

Founder Muhga Eltigani didn’t respond to questions about how the company is doing, but at a Philly Tech Week event this past May, said she had just raised $5 million and started out by cold emailing on LinkedIn.

5. N3rd Street Gamers

We also didn’t hear from CEO and founder John Fazio, but the esports network headquartered in Northern Liberties has been busy: a $2.57 million raise in February (and another $1.59 million in July); a partnership with videogame publisher Blizzard Entertainment; and the announcement of plans for a third location, this time in Huntington Beach, California.

P.S. Did you catch Fazio speaking at our super-popular esports panel during the Introduced by Technical.ly conference?

6. Lilu

Cofounder and CEO Adriana Vazquez wrote to us saying that earlier in the year, the pumping bra startup had been successfully funded on Kickstarter.

“We are about to start fulfilling orders next month which is a very exciting milestone,” Vazquez said.

7. NeuroFlow

The mental health care and analytics platform has made some moves since January: Notably, it’s grown from a staff of 12 to 26 and is on pace to do more than $2 million in annual revenue by the end of this year, up from $400,000 last year, CEO Chris Molaro said.

It also recently partnered with Jefferson Health to create a mental healthcare platform that facilitates health care management for patients in between traditional office visits.

The company has been recognized through various awards and newcomer lists, and even hosted an Introduced panel on removing the stigma around mental health.

8. Vetd

Cofounder and CEO Andrew Hoagland told us this month that the company believes the future of the internet will be about transparency.

The software-buying platform that vets vendors has grown to four full-time staffers and two interns, and hopes to add more to its roster by the end of the year. The company launched its community platform recently, inviting companies to share with each other what programs and software they use.

“The community version of Vetd is taking off and we are really excited about where this will take us in the future,” Hoagland said.

9. Group K Diagnostics

The point-of-care diagnostics company has since expanded its board of directors, hired a molecular biologist to support a research collaboration with the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and brought on a controller to support day-to-day functions, said Kimberly Cox, SVP of strategic communications.

Group K has also updated its lab facilities and moved its manufacturing facilities to a 1,200-square-foot-space in Philly, “allowing our output capacity to triple,” Cox said.

And, oh yeah, the startup inked a deal with the CDC to design a Zika virus test.

10. TrekIT Health

The University of Pennsylvania spinout, which offers a set of efficiency tools for clinicians, announced in May that it had been chosen as a finalist for the 2019 SIIA CODiE Awards as a “Best Healthcare Technology Solution.”

Cofounder Subha Airan-Javia also represented the company as a speaker at the 2019 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference and Exhibition in Orlando in February.