Editor’s note: This article was updated on June 29, 2021, to correct some references to Streamlytics.

StartEngine (OTCMKTS:STGC) is an equity crowdfunding platform where you can find a plethora of investment opportunities across several sectors.

Startup investing differs from traditional investing in assets such as stocks, bonds or ETFs. The unknown factor of whether a startup will survive and succeed, combined with a high risk of failure makes startup investing both lucrative and speculative.

Without further ado, here are the 7 best startups to buy on StartEngine right now:

• Elemeno Health
• Arrow AI by Custom Social
• Streamlytics
• Fluo Labs
• Colorado Sake
• Chow 420
• FoodsPass

In the end, startup investing is about making decisions based on growth potential, ideas worth supporting and personal connections with the management of the companies. Plus it feels good to invest in something different and exciting.

Elemeno Health

Elemeno Health is all about real-time point of care training, a mobile-friendly cloud solution that wants to address some of the biggest problems in healthcare today. And Elemeno Health has a core advantage, as it is designed by doctors and nurses.

Healthcare is too important, especially as medical staff is both overwhelmed and overworked during this Covid-19 crisis. Unpleasant results happen such as medical errors, waste and job turnover in the healthcare industry.

Elemeno’s mobile-friendly cloud solution delivers on-demand instruction and support for team training and communication and in essence equips frontline nurses and doctors with custom interactive guidelines, smart checklists and concise how-to videos, on-demand 24/7.

The U.S. market for clinical staff is a $2 billion market and the company has traction, as seen by 300% growth between 2018 and 2020 and an expanding client list.

The company has raised $3,279 from four investors in the current funding round. The minimum amount of investment is $249.40 and the valuation is at $20 million.

Arrow AI by Custom Social

Digital advertising should be easy, effective and affordable. This is the mission of Arrow AI by Custom Social. The goal for advertisers shouldn’t be more clicks but rather the right clicks.

Arrow uses artificial intelligence and expansive data to help small businesses efficiently and effectively target their social media ads, getting the most of their return on investment in advertising.

Arrow is a digital marketing browser extension that helps small businesses reach their target audience. Using a patent-pending technology that utilizes interest-based targeting rather than cookies or mobile device ID data, small businesses can have better results and reach their marketing goals.

There is established traction for Arrow, as it has $900,000 in seed capital and has made $681,000 in revenue since the company was founded in 2019. And there are several thousand users on the waitlist.

The business model is based on subscription products, with two plans, costing either $9 per month or $49 per month for users with bigger marketing teams. The concept is valuable, as Arrow helps businesses avoid losing money on ads that reach the wrong people.

This company has bold ambitions, as it wants to serve millions of small businesses in the next few years, with 400,000+ downloads of their software.

Arrow has raised $114,011 from 71 investors. The minimum investment is $249.85 and the valuation is $18.1 million.

Streamlytics

Streamlytics is a tech company that is creating the future of data transactions. Its B2C products help users reclaim ownership of their data, as well as giving them a chance to monetize it.

Every day we consume and create tons of data and while the big tech companies are making a lot of money from this data, individuals don’t see any of that money at all. Clicks, search and page loads are valuable to companies tracking users for their preferences. These datastreams are bought and sold by corporations, often without consumers being aware of it.

Streamlytics offers a smarter and safer way to leverage first-party data, reporting clean and clear consumer activity data directly (and ethically) from the source. Consumer-to-Business data transactions allow consumers to choose when to upload their data to the platform and to maintain ownership of their data. On the flip side, the platform can process, enhance and resell that data to enterprise customers looking for access to richer data sets to power their business decisions.

The business model is based on making revenue by charging enterprise clients an annual subscription for access to the data feed. This costs businesses anywhere from $550,000 to $1,200,000 per year which means a significant opportunity for revenue.

The company has raised $220,326 from 291 investors and $1,068,471 from a previously crowdfunded campaign. The minimum investment is $250.92 and the valuation is $35 million.

Fluo Labs

Fluo Labs could be easily one of my favorite companies based on the solutions it offers. Fluo Labs is a premarket clinical-stage medical device company reinventing an important concept, namely how people manage their seasonal allergies.

The company wants to pioneer a light-based technology to help allergy sufferers to reduce their allergy symptoms without having to use medication.

Reasons to invest? A potential new category in allergy care, a huge and growing market as it is estimated that over 50 million Americans and 1 billion more people worldwide will suffer from allergies and multiple patents granted and filed and a successful proof-of-concept study. The team is focusing on completing the clinical evaluations and final studies needed to obtain an FDA de Novo grant, maybe by the end of 2021.

A new approach for allergy symptom relief and drug-free therapy that is safer and also more efficacious than current allergy treatments seems an interesting idea at least.

Fluo Labs has raised $21,488 from 41 investors. The minimum investment is $250 and the valuation is $12 million.

Colorado Sake

Colorado Sake Company is a sake brewery and tasting room that specializes in a variety of premium and unique local sake, available to buy both in-house and online.

There has been plenty of expansion in the past year. Colorado Sake expanded its location from 500 square feet to 4000 square feet in year one. It has since grown further into 15,000 square feet. On top of that, the company is distributing across the state of Colorado and has experienced exponential growth, with a profit margin of about 80%.

Can sake become a big hit in the U.S.? Colorado Sake believes so, as it will launch a brand new line of Hard Sake Seltzers this summer. It now has another product, American Standard, which is the signature, traditional Junmai Ginjo Sake.

Colorado Sake sees a lot of potential; according to the company, sake is one of the fastest-growing alcohol catgories in the U.S. And there are only a few sake breweries in the U.S. This could mean gaining a huge share of the market and significant further growth.

The business model is to sell sB2B as well as D2C both in-person and online with high-profit margins.

The company has raised $124,936 from 137 investors. The minimum investment is $250.00 and the valuation is $12 million.

Chow 420

Chow 420 combines cannabis, blockchain technology and automated retail business. So it seems like an investing no-brainer. A blockchain-powered cannabis ecosystem utilizing a smart marketplace and a network of automated dispensaries for cannabis products sure sounds like the future to me.

Need more reasons to invest? CBD sales are predicted to reach $20 billion by 2024 and the overall U.S. cannabis industry could grow to nearly $80 billion annually by 2022.

Through smart partnerships, the company has achieved zero-contact automated dispensaries and agreed to a multi-store deal with SIMON malls and PREIT malls across 4 states. A previous funding round in 2020 netted the company $1.07 million in seed money.

The CBD industry is an interesting market but at the same time, it is both unregulated and oversaturated. Chow 420 wants to become the one-stop destination for the CBD industry and federally legal cannabis products. As CBD sales are predicted to hit $20 billion by 2024, the opportunity for gaining a market share is a big one. Plus, one must imagine that when federal legalization becomes the law of the land, Chow 420 will have infrastructure in place to move into that market as well.

The concept of selling high-quality CBD products with strong partnerships is something that could add value to Chow 420. The company has raised $78,252 from 99 investors. The minimum investment is $188.80 and the valuation is $17.1 million.

FoodsPass

Have you heard the phrase “eat smarter?” Rather than just eating healthier (which is obviously important), this company is also about saving money on food. FoodsPass is a next-generation payments card that is dedicated to food savings.

You can get the best deals on grocery, dine-in, takeout, delivery and plenty more. The process is simple, you buy with FoodsPass and you get automatically a 4% to 40% cashback every time you buy food.

However, the vision for FoodsPass isn’t just about preventing pain at the checkout aisle but rather connecting communities to not just more affordable food but having a mission with purpose, to donate meals to families in need. This is a company that wants to become an important player in the global food ecosystem.

The company has recently been shortlisted for “Most Fundable Company 2021” by Pepperdine University, the Techstars x Western Union Technology Accelerator and the Kroger Innovation fund. The market potential is very big. There is a $115 billion serviceable obtainable market and an even bigger market, a $1.62 trillion serviceable addressable market for U.S. food and beverage purchases in 2020.

Marketing agreements also exist with big names in the food and beverage industries. The solution of eating now and paying later while saving more sounds very appealing to consumers.

The company has raised $25,309 from 21 investors. The minimum investment is $248.22 and the valuation is $12.5 million.

On the date of publication, Stavros Georgiadis, CFA did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Stavros Georgiadis is a CFA charter holder, an Equity Research Analyst and an Economist. He focuses on U.S. stocks and has his own stock market blog at thestockmarketontheinternet.com/. He has written in the past various articles for other publications and can be reached on Twitter and on LinkedIn.