As 2025 kicks off, UrbanGeekz has rounded up a list of stellar startups that have the potential to accelerate to new heights this year.
These businesses are simplifying cross-border logistics, reimagining shopping, and using AI to create industry-disrupting models. Led by dynamic founders and backed by elite investors, these ventures are poised (if all goes to plan) for continued success.
They’re not just changing industries—they’re revolutionizing them by launching products that transform lives and empower communities worldwide to reach their full potential.
Check out our list of eight ventures pushing the frontiers in the ever-evolving landscape of technology and innovation.
Zimi: Audrey Djiya
Founded by Audrey Djiya (CEO) and Peter Nsaka (CTO) in 2023, Zimi is a cross-border commerce partner dedicated to simplifying global expansion for international brands. The Y Combinator and Fearless Fund-backed startup empowers businesses to thrive in new markets by optimizing cross-border logistics, offering seamless local fulfillment, and automating secure international payments in a streamlined platform. Zimi raised $2M in 2024.
Since starting her career, Djiya has supported brands with growth through support functions at various entrepreneur accelerators on the continent. Before founding Zimi, she was a product lead at Duplo and Carbon, two Nigerian fintech companies.
Her career before that spans consulting and tech in the US, supporting international expansion and strategy at Peloton, new business development at Zola.com, and digital transformation at Deloitte. Audrey holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.
Aesthetic: LJ Northington
LJ Northington is the Co-Founder and CEO of Aesthetic, a company focused on transforming online clothing shopping. Through its AI/ML algorithm, Alma, the VC-funded platform, makes it easy for people to buy clothes that otherwise might be hard to find. The fashion concierge helps people identify and shop for clothing they sourced on social media.
Before launching Aesthetic in 2022, he served as an Analyst in Corporate Business Development and Strategy at Westbrook Inc. (the media company co-founded by Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith), contributing to celebrity-led consumer products startups from July 2020 to February 2022.
The Harvard graduate’s earlier experiences include roles as an Analyst at BLK Capital Management, where participation in a rigorous education program was key from June 2018 to July 2020, and as an Analyst in the Harvard Investment Association and Harvard Financial Analysts Club from January 2018 to January 2020.
Health Evolve: Kim Smith
Kim Smith launched Health Evolve Technologies, LLC in 2023 to build innovative solutions to reimagine personalized care delivery with an equitable design. The company’s app, Lauren, is a personalized digital care navigator that helps birthing women manage their blood pressure and stress while receiving customized guidance on heart health and direct support to address the social determinants of health (SDOH) needs.
She’s spent 18 years mastering executive leadership skills within some of the top hospital systems in the United States, including Duke Medicine. Smith’s corporate experience includes leadership development, hospital and large medical group operations, business development and acquisitions, global business expansion, patient engagement, rural health access, and reducing health inequalities.
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Through Health Evolve, Smith has partnered with organizations like Deloitte and the United States of Care to address the growing maternal health disparity gap. She was accepted to the South Carolina Liberty Fellowship Class of 2025. Smith earned her master’s degree in health administration from the University of South Carolina and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wake Forest University.
Wolomi: Layo George
Wolomi is a digital health platform and online community that supports women of color through their pregnancy, birth, and postpartum journeys. Layo George founded the organization in 2019 to provide resources and guidance to improve the experiences and outcomes for under-resourced and underserved women during their perinatal periods.
Layo began her career as a lead contract compliance nurse for the DC Department of Health’s immunization program and a women’s health nurse at MedStar Harbor Health in Baltimore, MD., and Mayo Health System in Eau Claire, WI. As a quality improvement specialist at the District of Columbia Primary Care Association, she led 15 healthcare centers through value-based practice transformation and oral health primary care integration.
She is a board member of the DC Board of Nursing and Unity Healthcare (a large Federally Qualified Healthcare Center in DC). In May 2019, she received her Master’s in Health Administration System from Georgetown University. Wolomi was part of Google’s Black Founders Fund in 2022 and Techstars in 2023.
MYAVANA: Candace Mitchell
Launched by Candace Mitchell in 2012, MYAVANA is a beauty tech company providing data-driven insights to retailers, salons, brands, and consumers. Formerly known as Madame You, the AI platform offers a hair care recommendation system, combining artificial intelligence and hair care experts to support and guide women with their hair care. MYAVANA provides a hair analysis service to recommend the best hair products and styling techniques for your unique hair type and texture.
Mitchell was named on the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the retail and e-commerce category and BET’s Next In Class STEM Award Winner. She was also featured on UrbanGeekz 2024 50 list. She graduated from Georgia Tech in 2011 with a B.S. in Computer Science. Her technology background includes undergraduate research in IT security and human-computer interaction. According to Forbes, MYAVANA raised $5.9 million in 2024, placing the company’s valuation at $50 million.
Her company has been featured nationally on ‘The Real’ daytime talk show, MSNBC’s Melissa HarrisPerry show, ESSENCE magazine, Ebony Magazine, Black Enterprise, and Business Insider. The visionary entrepreneur is sparking innovation in the worlds of beauty and technology as one of the first entrepreneurs chosen by Sephora in the Summer 2016 Accelerate program.
Esusu: Wemimo Abbey
From living paycheck to paycheck in Lagos, Nigeria, Wemimo Abbey moved to the United States and founded a Black-owned Unicorn. When Abbey and his family arrived in the States, they were excluded from the traditional financial system and had to turn to a 400% plus interest rate loan to pay for his school.
Abbey experienced first-hand the power of community savings and digitized the process by starting Esusu. The financial technology company helps low-to-moderate-income households build credit by using their on-time rent payments. In January 2022, Esusu was valued at $1 billion in its Series B fundraising round, led by the SoftBank Vision Fund. It’s one of a handful of Black companies that have achieved unicorn status or are valued at over $1 billion.
He graduated Magna Cum Laude in Business Management from the University of Minnesota, Crookston, and a Master of Public Administration & Non-Profit Management Policy, International Relations and Affairs from the New York University. Abbey’s early career includes Accenture, Goldman Sachs, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) roles. Beyond Esusu, Abbey served as a Queen’s Young Leader at the University of Cambridge in 2016 and as a Public Policy and International Affairs Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.
Fireflies: Sam Udotong
Fireflies.ai is an AI-powered notetaker that records, transcribes, summarizes, and analyzes meetings. The co-founder and CTO, Sam Udotong, is an MIT alum with a strong foundation in computer science and aerospace engineering and has consistently pushed the boundaries of technology. He developed his expertise through roles at leading aerospace companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, where he worked on advanced projects such as optimizing satellite systems and deploying deep learning.
At MIT, Udotong excelled academically and took on leadership roles, including serving as president of the MIT UAV Team, where he honed his skills in autonomous drone technology. After graduating, he chose to forgo a traditional career path and instead ventured into the startup world, moving to San Francisco with only $100 to his name. His journey with Fireflies.ai has been one of persistence and innovation, involving multiple pivots before finding success in the AI-powered meeting transcription space.
Under Udotong’s technical leadership, Fireflies.ai has grown significantly, securing $19 million in funding and building a global team. The startup has emerged as the 4th most popular AI platform globally, serving 16M+ users. He is also an active thought leader, frequently guest lecturing at Stanford on artificial intelligence and sharing his insights at major tech conferences.
CurlMix: Kimberly Lewis
Lewis launched CurlMix with her husband, Tim Lewis, in 2015 as a DIY subscription box of natural hair care products. After two years of experimentation and research, Kim masterminded a pivotal shift for CurlMix in January 2018 to focus on ready-made Flaxseed Gel as its hero product.
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Within three years of this iteration of manufacturing, the company reached $1 million in annual sales. This led to an appearance on Shark Tank in 2019, although Lewis declined the $400,000 deal offered. The following year, CurlMix received a $12 million valuation for a seed round of funding, and sales soared to $6 million in annual revenue. They have earned over $15 million in lifetime sales—all online.
The company continued to make headlines by offering its customers the opportunity to invest. Within hours of launching its crowdfunding campaign, CurlMix raised $1 million. By April 2021, the startup had raised $4.5 million in equity crowdfunding.
In 2020, the Lewises were included on Forbes’ coveted “30 under 30” list, and she was named among Crain’s Chicago Business’s “20 in Their 20s.” Along with landing on Oprah’s Favorite Things List, CurlMix products have been featured on Essence.com, Ebony.com, BlackEnterprise.com, and Refinery29.com, to name a few. In 2021, CurlMix was listed at #93 on the Inc. 5000 list of growing companies.
