How do you find a company and become its next investor when it is not publicly traded? A great way to search for the best startups is to browse reputable equity crowdfunding platforms, such as StartEngine. The idea of buying a piece of a company in its very early stages and helping it grow over time to deploy its business plan, focus on how to disrupt its industry, become a successful firm, and add value in terms of capital gains to your initial investments, are some of the key reasons to consider startups as investments.

In this article, you will find the seven best startups that recently launched their equity crowdfunding campaigns. It is a good idea to perform due diligence and contact the businesses to get more information. Startups are very risky investments. Still, with high risks, high returns can be achieved.

Here are the 7 best startups that recently started their equity crowdfunding campaigns on StartEngine:

• Retina Technologies
• OSM Shield
• Dharma Southern Kitchen
• BaggerBot by Brigade Automation Corporation
• Lindora
• Weapon X, Inc.
• The SMART Tire Company, Inc

Best Startups: Retina Technologies

Retina Technologies prevents and detects issues related to vision by providing a digital vision testing platform that has numerous benefits. For a start, it is affordable. In the U.S., access to vision care remains spotty due to many circumstances, including lack of finances or insurance.

Retina Technologies is changing vision screening to become accessible to everyone globally. Their prototype OcuVue is a virtual headset that provides interactive virtual reality eye exams and high-definition retina imaging. The integrated machine learning technology can provide recommendations to eye care providers based on faster and more rigorous testing. This saves time, money, and vision. OcuVue can run in less than 15 minutes, providing a better user experience and a comprehensive eye exam.

The market Retina Technologies is targeting is the U.S. eye examination market, worth more than $5 billion. It also targets the global ophthalmology diagnostic tools market, estimated at $2.7 billion, but growing fast at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.4%.

The vision of Retina Technologies is twofold: to provide global access to vision screening tools and prevent vision loss or severe vision problems. The business model will generate revenue from selling the hardware, but also through recurring fees based on usage per patient.

You can invest in Retina Technologies on StartEngine with a minimum investment of $234.

OSM Shield

Performance fabric finishes in commercial and consumer textiles often come at a significant environmental cost. The chemicals used in the production are toxic both to people and to the environment. OSM Shield instead uses clean technology and an environmentally sustainable approach in applying high-performance fabric finishes to textiles.

OSM Shield collaborates with consumer brands to develop performance features for their products. Some of the notable features are stain resistance, water and oil resistance, and antimicrobial properties. OSM Shield has gained traction by having collaborations with brands and fabric mills in 20 countries.

The company serves many industry sectors ranging from activewear, upholstery, hospitality, medical, home goods, outwear, and uniforms. There are many multi-billion markets to address. The global antimicrobial textile market is estimated to grow to $12.3 billion by the year 2024. The global repellent fluoropolymer industry is expected to become an $8.4 billion market by 2026.

OSM Shield’s V-Shield is an antimicrobial technology that uses hydrogen peroxide to replicate the human body’s natural defense mechanisms against pathogens. ZERO is a platform to ensure clothes have stain, moisture, and odor resistance without the toxic chemicals that are often used.

You can invest in OSM Shield on StartEngine with a minimum investment of $249.60.

Best Startups: Dharma Southern Kitchen

Dharma Southern Kitchen provides 100% plant-based and fast-casual food in Florida. Plant-based cuisine is gaining momentum quickly in the U.S. market. It is estimated that about 9.7 million Americans follow a plant-based diet.

While plant-based food is popular, it can also be expensive. Dharma Southern Kitchen provides affordable high-quality, plant-based foods that appeal to all types of food lovers, from vegan to flexitarian. Its business model has gained traction and has a valuation of $35 million.

Dharma Southern Kitchen is more than just a restaurant. It expands into the retail market in groceries stores, but also serves hospitals, as well. The demand for plant-based food is expected to grow and become a market of $10.7 billion by the year 2027 at a CAGR of 9.69%.

The firm estimates that there are two positive key factors for it. First is the economic recovery of Florida amid the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. The second is Orlando’s very fast growth rate. More specifically, it is reported to be the second-fastest growth among the 30 largest U.S. cities. Demographics and consumer preferences are elements of success for almost any business.

You can invest in Dharma Southern Kitchen on StartEngine with a minimum amount of $199.50.

BaggerBot by Brigade Automation Corporation

In business and life, it pays to be proactive. Brigade Automation Corporation has a solution to address climate change and natural disasters. How? With BaggerBot, a mobile device that responds to natural disasters faster and more efficiently.

Time is essential when disasters approach and humans can only fill about 250 – 800 sandbags per hour, always dependent on the number of volunteers. The process of manually producing, loading, and handling sandbags with human labor has restrictions such as fatigue and injuries.

BaggerBot addresses these problems. It is a sophisticated robotic machine that can prepare a rate of 1,600 sandbags per hour working 2 hours per day. The sandbags can be transferred anywhere to help communities be prepared for imminent natural disasters and extreme weather conditions. It is also very easy to use, requiring only three people as operators to load the bags in the machine. What is also interesting about BaggerBot is that it can provide solutions to other applications, like filling materials such as gravel, tea, or rice. BaggerBot can also be useful in construction and business applications.

You can invest in BaggerBot by Brigade Automation Corporation on StartEngine with a minimum investment of $383.98.

Best Startups: Lindora

Many countries, including the U.S., have a weight problem. Obesity can cause various health problems and puts a huge financial impact on the healthcare system. Lindora offers a radical solution to obesity as a weight loss company with a unique approach to address weight loss. The company uses ketogenic science combined with physiological and psychological aspects, along with behavioral science to help people learn how to eat better, lose unnecessary weight, and upkeep a healthier lifestyle.

It is estimated that patients of Lindora lose an average of 18 pounds in 10 weeks.

Lindora targets the weight loss market that is expected to grow at $295.3 billion by 2027. The business model focuses on growth from partnerships with medical clinics to deliver specialized weight loss and wellness services. It has a digital platform to provide content worldwide. This makes it easy to partner with care physician networks and enact large-scale distribution of proprietary nutritional foods and supplements that have large profitability margins.

Lindora has already built a brand in Southern California but plans to reach a worldwide audience. It has already implemented an e-commerce business model throughout the U.S.

You can invest in Lindora on StartEngine with a minimum amount of $250.

Weapon X, Inc.

Weapon X, although still in the pre-production phase, is all about disrupting the recycling industry. Recycling is essential to fight environmental pollution and turn used materials into new and effective products.

In essence “Weapon X allows recyclers to combine, grind, and reform different plastics without the need to separate the used plastic products, saving time and money.” With Weapon X, sorting plastic is no longer necessary. That is by far the most tedious task in recycling.

The use of patent-pending plastic recycling agents is very effective as it combines not one but 17 different chemicals and binding agents to recycle plastics, creating materials that will not fray. On top of that, these materials are 100% recyclable products.

Weapon X is well-poised to explore a large opportunity in the plastic market that is expected to double by the year 2050. The business plan centers around selling Weapon X to an established network of local and regional recycling plant owners, then to other recycling plants across the U.S., and finally worldwide.

Weapon X can drastically reduce plastic consumption, increase overall recyclable material, and save both energy and the planet.

You can invest in Weapon X on StartEngine with a minimum investment of $500.

Best Startups: The SMART Tire Company, Inc

Can you reinvent the wheel? The SMART Tire Company thinks it can by creating high-performance, airless tires using technology invented by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

It is always stressful to get a flat tire, either by our own mistake or by external factors out of our control. Often, we need to fill tires with air and change them frequently, depending on the distances we cover.

The SMART Tire Company makes tires that are airless, durable, and most of all, will never go flat. The usage of the material NiTinol (nickel-titanium) makes these tires super elastic, returning to their original shape no matter how much you bend or stretch them.

Classic rubber tires cause a lot of problems, such as the need for high maintenance and creating more than 68.1 billion pounds of tire waste every year, which is bad news for the environment. On the contrary, the SMART Tires are not just eco-friendly, but also fuel-efficient, strong, and very durable.

These innovative tires come in a large variety of colors and will initially be used for bicycles and scooters. The original cost of the advanced tires will be $100 – $150 for bicycles, later targeting other automotive and trucking solutions.

The global tire market is estimated to be a $250 billion market, growing at a CAGR of 3.2%.

You can invest in The SMART Tire Company on StartEngine with a minimum investment of $243.80.

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.