Santa Cruz Works’ 2025 Startups to Watch: What Actually Happened

Jan 4

As we drive onward into 2026, we take a moment to review our predictions of the “Top Santa Cruz Companies to Watch in 2025”: a snapshot of Central Coast companies we believed had real momentum, not just good pitch decks.

A year later, the results look like an honest cross-section of startup reality: a few clear step-function wins (new capital, new contracts, new deployments), a few strong validation moments (press, pilots, awards), and at least one hard pivot driven by the world’s favorite villain: the funding environment.

Here’s how each company progressed in 2025, and what that tells us about building on the Central Coast.

EvenRecharge: EvenRecharge ran into headwinds as funding tightened, and the company pivoted away from EV charging to focus on mobile, off-grid infrastructure such as portable coffee kiosks and security booth power solutions. Their current product direction emphasizes self-contained, deployable systems built for real-world sites that need power without complicated construction timelines.
Light Links: Light Links had a breakout year by turning deep tech into real commercial pull. The company is developing Wi-OW (Wireless Optical Wideband), using invisible optical beams to deliver high-speed connectivity through the air, aimed at environments that can’t tolerate lag or interference. In 2025, they landed a major enterprise foothold, including a reported multi-million-dollar agreement tied to a Fortune-scale customer use case.
OpenRoad: OpenRoad’s 2025 progress was defined by credibility and forward motion: they were selected for a $200K California Energy Commission CalSEED Concept Award, validating both their technical approach and the market need for lower-cost DC fast charging. The company’s focus is modular, affordable charging that can work in locations where traditional DC fast charging is too expensive or impractical, including underserved areas.
Swellcycle: Swellcycle moved from “cool concept” to “funded manufacturing platform.” The team closed a $1M pre-seed round led by Third Sphere and reported a major technical milestone: a 3D-printed surfboard core down to roughly 4 pounds, comparable to traditional foam blanks. They also positioned the surfboard as the wedge into a broader microfactory vision, with Santa Cruz Ventures participating in their pre-seed round.
TerraNova Bio: TerraNova Bio continued building a compelling circular-economy story around polyurethane recycling using fungi strains, reporting decomposition timelines on the order of weeks rather than decades. The team’s model centers on breaking polyurethane down into reusable precursors that can be resynthesized into new materials. In 2025, they also earned external validation as a finalist in the Western Placer Waste Management Authority’s Circular Economy Innovation Competition.
Treeswax: Treeswax had a straightforward kind of 2025 win: mainstream attention that signals the product is resonating beyond Santa Cruz. The company was featured in SURFER.com, highlighting its petroleum-free wax made from naturally sourced ingredients and emphasizing performance (tackiness, durability, longevity) alongside sustainability. It’s the kind of coverage that can turn a niche eco-product into a brand surfers actually ask for by name.
Wonderfil: Wonderfil kept doing the hard part: deploying real infrastructure in real retail. After launching refill stations with Dr. Bronner’s at Whole Foods Market locations, the company posted strong early traction and expansion, including a larger (solar-powered) Santa Cruz office and an investment from Santa Cruz Ventures. By late 2025, they were also hiring across engineering, technician, and ops/marketing roles, a good proxy for operational scale. (Santa Cruz Works)

What the 2025 results tell us

If there’s a single theme across these outcomes, it’s this: traction comes in two forms, and you need at least one. Either (1) customers pull the product into the market (Light Links, Wonderfil), or (2) non-dilutive funding and credible investors create the runway to finish the hard engineering (OpenRoad, Swellcycle). And sometimes, when neither arrives fast enough, the smartest move is to pivot toward the nearest adjacent problem you can actually serve (EvenRecharge).

That’s not a “good news only” story. It’s a realistic one. And realism is what makes an ecosystem durable.