Tag: accelerators

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Amid a boom in AI accelerators, a UC Berkeley-focused outfit, House Fund, swings open its doors

Companies at the forefront of AI would naturally like to stay at the forefront, so it’s no surprise they want to stay close to smaller startups that are putting some of their newest advancements to work.

Last month, for example, Neo, a startup accelerator founded by Silicon Valley investor Ali Partovi, announced that OpenAI and Microsoft have offered to provide free software and advice to companies in a new track focused on artificial intelligence.

Now, another Bay Area outfit — House Fund, which invests in startups with ties to UC Berkeley — says it is launching an AI accelerator and that similarly, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Databricks are offering participating startups free and early access to tech from their companies. The outfits are also offering mentorship, as is Google’s Gradient Ventures.

We talked with House Fund founder Jeremy Fiance over the weekend to get a bit more color about the program, which will replace a broader-based accelerator program House Fund has run and whose alums include an additive manufacturing software company, Dyndrite, and the managed app development platform Crowdbotics, whose most recent round in January brought the company’s total funding to more than $60 million.

For founders interested in learning more, the new AI accelerator program runs for two months, kicking off in early July and ending in early September. Six or so companies will be accepted, with the early application deadline coming up next week on April 13th. (The final application deadline is on June 1.) As for the time commitment involved across those two months, every startup could have a different experience, says Fiance. “We’re there when you need us, and we’re good at staying out of the way.”

There will be the requisite kickoff retreat to spark the program and founders to get to know one another. Candidates who are accepted will also have access to some of UC Berkeley’s renowned AI professors, including Michael Jordan, Ion Stoica, and Trevor Darrell. And they can opt into dinners and events in collaboration with these various constituents.

As for some of the financial dynamics, every startup that goes through the program will receive a $1 million investment on a $10 million post-money SAFE note. Importantly, too, as with the House Fund’s venture dollars, its AI accelerator is seeking startups that have at least one Berkeley-affiliated founder on the co-founding team. That includes alumni, faculty, PhDs, postdocs, staff, students, dropouts, and other affiliates.

There is no demo day. Instead, says Fiance, founders will receive “directed, personal introductions” to the VCs who best fit with their startups.

Given the buzz over AI, the new program could supercharge House Fund, the venture organization, which is already growing fast. Fiance launched it in 2016 with just $6 million and it now manages $300 million in assets, including on behalf of Berkeley Endowment Management Company and the University of California.

At the same time, the competition out there is fierce and growing more so by the day.

Though OpenAI has offered to partner with House Fund, for example, the San Francisco-based company announced its own accelerator back in November. Called Converge, the cohort was to be made up of 10 or so founders who received $1 million each and admission to five weeks of office hours, workshops and other events that ended and that received their funding from the OpenAI Startup Fund.

Y Combinator, the biggest accelerator in the world, is also oozing with AI startups right now, all of them part of a winter class that will be talking directly with investors this week via demo days that are taking place tomorrow, April 5th, and on Thursday.

Amid a boom in AI accelerators, a UC Berkeley-focused outfit, House Fund, swings open its doors by Connie Loizos originally published on TechCrunch

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Meet the women-led web3 startups from Thousand Faces’ demo day

Thousand Faces, a web3 community-based investment group, hosted its demo day on Wednesday with the top 10 startups from its Female Founder Accelerator program.

The demo day coincided with International Women’s Day and featured women-led businesses focused on sustainable development goals (SDGs). The accelerator program’s first cohort accepted 30 startups from a pool of over 220 applicants across 76 countries.

The 10 startups are pitching for a spot in the top five to be eligible for one-on-one mentorship and up to €50,000 in cash rewards and prizes that will be awarded next month, the group said.

Here’s a breakdown of Thousand Faces’ top 10 startups the Female Founder Accelerator:

Company name: Kleiderly

  • What it does: Recycle textile waste
  • Founder: Alina Bassi
  • Country: Germany
  • The pitch: Kleiderly recycles unwanted textile waste and turns that into its patented plastic alternative in hopes of replacing the need for plastics. The material aims to replace oil-based plastics and produce items ranging from eyewear to suitcases, Bassi said during demo day. To date, it has saved 20,000 shirts from going to landfill, Bassi added. The startup estimates each corporate customer can save about 12,500 kilograms of CO2e, equivalent to 1.5 million smartphones charged or 13,800 pounds of coal burned.

Company name: SALUBATA

  • What it does: Shoes made of recycled plastic
  • Founder: Yewande Akinse
  • Country: Nigeria
  • The pitch: SALUBATA makes patented modular shoes from recycled plastic waste in an effort to decrease the global carbon footprint. The shoes are customizable and are also available as NFTs. The startup has strategic partnerships with companies like Amazon and Faire and has sold over 6,000 shoes to date. It is currently registered in Nigeria, France and the U.S. and is looking to raise $3 million to scale globally, Akinse shared.

Company name: SOULA (legal name MAMATECH Inc.)

  • What it does: Pre- and post-pregnancy app
  • Founder: Natallia Miranchuk
  • Country: Cyprus
  • The pitch: The SOULA app is an AI-powered guide for 24/7 informational and mental health support during pregnancy, birth and postpartum care. The application provides personalized educational content and emotional support with a virtual assistant or “pocket” version of a doula. It is currently raising a seed round to invest in business development and grow its product development.

Company name: AkwaaPay

  • What it does: Payments solution
  • Founder: Christine Dikonguè
  • Country: Canada and Nigeria
  • The pitch: AkwaaPay leverages web3 infrastructure to help African businesses and individuals make and receive payments internationally. The platform allows users to receive money in their wallets in cryptocurrencies or convert it to local currencies. The startup launched its beta product in Q4 2022 and has 384 users registered across three countries. It hopes to expand in 15 different currencies across 44 countries by the end of the year, Dikonguè said during her pitch.

Company name: Jonda Health

  • What it does: Health network with patient-facing app
  • Founder: Suhina Singh
  • Country: Singapore
  • The pitch: Jonda Health aims to improve health data available to patients. It’s building out a “Lego-like tech stack” to provide a host of capabilities to clients to improve care coordination, reduce costs and improve health outcomes for patients, among other things, Singh shared during her pitch. The platform adheres to data privacy laws and uses zero-knowledge encryption to store data in a secure way, Singh added.

Company name: Radava Mercantile

  • What it does: Links agriculture to financial markets
  • Founder: Josephine Adeti Otieno
  • Country: Kenya
  • The pitch: Radava aims to link small agriculture farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to financial markets. It provides an agricultural commodity exchange market, alternative financing and post-harvest technologies to farmers. The startup also gives farmers the ability to use their produce as collateral to access loans and real-time market information. In the past six months, it has traded over 540 tons on its platform across over 650 customers and users for around $26,000 in revenue, Otieno shared.

Company name: Biiah

  • What it does: Singing wellness platform
  • Founder: Xann Schwinn, Suzi Digby Obe
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • The pitch: Biiah is an employee wellness platform that aims to make singing accessible in-person, virtually or through an application to establish a daily singing routine and help users improve their health. The platform is focused on large corporations in the U.K. and U.S. and has 12 recurring clients and has had 24 total clients to date, Schwinn said. ExxonMobil is a client, and 92% of employees who used it said “it made a positive impact on their workweek,” she added.

Company name: Qerat Startup

  • What it does: Food product
  • Founder: Salma Essa
  • Country: Syria
  • The pitch: Qerat Startup aims to provide “food for good,” or food security, by using a commonly wasted resource, carob, for nourishment. The prototype consists of coffee, sweetened bread and chocolate and is suitable for diabetic, cardiac and hypertension patients. To date, it has six partners, including UNICEF, and works with 22 farmers and 20 schools.

Company name: CONCAT Tech

  • What it does: Web development company
  • Founder: Laura Jardine
  • Country: U.K./Lebanon
  • The pitch: CONCAT creates websites for clients internationally while providing long-term, sustainable employment for marginalized communities like refugees. It has over 50 clients across 12 different countries and has generated $90,000 in revenue to date. It also has provided employment to about 15 marginalized refugees and/or female developers, Jardine shared.

Company name: Majik Water

  • What it does: Clean water technology
  • Founder: Beth Wanjiku Koigi
  • Country: Kenya
  • The pitch: Majik Water is a Kenyan social enterprise that aims to provide access to clean drinking water in arid and semi-arid regions through air-to-water technology and devices. Even if you’re in a desert, you can get drinking water, Koigi said. The startup has over 20 large-scale devices and 10 small-scale devices producing over 300,000 liters of water monthly to over 2,500 beneficiaries in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. It is raising a $200,000 preferred equity round to help with manufacturing and has $190,000 in grant funding secured, Koigi said.

Meet the women-led web3 startups from Thousand Faces’ demo day by Jacquelyn Melinek originally published on TechCrunch

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What’s going on in the Dutch startup scene?

I find something very intriguing about members of a royal family working to further the startup scene for a particular country.

In a magnificently frank conversation, I spoke with HRH Prince Constantijn, fourth in line to the throne of the Netherlands, at CES earlier this month. We discussed the Dutch ecosystem, the role of government in stimulating innovation and the challenges the country is facing in helping companies to go from startup to scale-up.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

TechCrunch: Why are you here at CES? 

HRH Prince Constantijn: I think I can help. I want to continue to build a relationship with the CTA [the Consumer Technology Association, which organizes CES] and help some of these companies by introducing them to corporates.

“[The Netherlands] is a country that wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for innovation. About a third of the country is underwater, and it innovated itself into existence.” HRH Prince Constantijn

And some of the companies meet with me just for the selfies. That makes me think, “Maybe cut the crap; I know what you want, so let’s just take the photo and get over it.”

On the whole, I’m here to support companies. In the Netherlands, we have support programs for scaleups or companies that are a bit further along, so a lot of what we do is to build connections, introducing them to founders or investors in the Bay Area, supporting them in as many ways as I can. And [CES] is just one of those outlets.

Why is CES important to the Netherlands in general? 

The Netherlands is a small market, and Europe is quite fragmented. The U.S. is an important market. Most companies — depending on the sector — have to go to the U.S. at some point in time. The U.S. is the biggest health market, for example, so for most of those companies, it’s important to get there early and build some relationships. The U.S. is probably the biggest automotive market, too. CES is relevant to us because it is so big and brings together a lot of different industries. Most of the big players are here.

CES is not a bullseye for some of the companies we have, especially the software companies, but there’s such a density of tech companies here that you find relevant contacts are really high. So that’s most important.

You seem to have taken an interest in the Dutch startup ecosystem. Why is that a focus for you?

What’s going on in the Dutch startup scene? by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

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The future of milk is … milk?

Milk is polarizing: To some, it’s a refreshing beverage that pairs well with cookies. For others, it’s a cursed liquid that causes tummy troubles. Even with the shelves of alt milks crowding grocery store coolers these days, the U.S. milk industry is a $15 billion category with 90% penetration, according to John Talbot, the CEO of the California Milk Advisory Board.

However, the industry is not known for sustainability or breakthrough creations. Milk processing plants focus on one thing — do it well and do it efficiently — but don’t do small runs or get involved in product development or innovation. It’s taken a while for the industry to realize that there’s a need for ingenuity, but it’s now embracing fresh ideas, Talbot said.

He believes some of that has to do with the fact that the milk category is declining for a number of reasons: Fewer children, the biggest milk drinkers, are being born, and more people are choosing faster breakfasts over sitting down for a bowl of cereal. That’s not to mention the aforementioned number of alt milks out there. But it’s not just dairy alternatives — water plays a big role in people’s drink choices, too, Talbot added.

Seeing a need for innovation, the California Milk Advisory Board turned to those who do it best: startups.

The organization has been hosting the Real California Milk Excelerator for the last four years to find interesting use cases for dairy and to connect entrepreneurs with processors so that there is engagement on both sides.

“We now rely on ideas coming in from these entrepreneurs to help processing plants through the innovation process,” Talbot added.

The future of milk is … milk? by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

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The future of milk is … milk?

Milk is polarizing: To some, it’s a refreshing beverage that pairs well with cookies. For others, it’s a cursed liquid that causes tummy troubles. Even with the shelves of alt milks crowding grocery store coolers these days, the U.S. milk industry is a $15 billion category with 90% penetration, according to John Talbot, the CEO of the California Milk Advisory Board.

However, the industry is not known for sustainability or breakthrough creations. Milk processing plants focus on one thing — do it well and do it efficiently — but don’t do small runs or get involved in product development or innovation. It’s taken a while for the industry to realize that there’s a need for ingenuity, but it’s now embracing fresh ideas, Talbot said.

He believes some of that has to do with the fact that the milk category is declining for a number of reasons: Fewer children, the biggest milk drinkers, are being born, and more people are choosing faster breakfasts over sitting down for a bowl of cereal. That’s not to mention the aforementioned number of alt milks out there. But it’s not just dairy alternatives — water plays a big role in people’s drink choices, too, Talbot added.

Seeing a need for innovation, the California Milk Advisory Board turned to those who do it best: startups.

The organization has been hosting the Real California Milk Excelerator for the last four years to find interesting use cases for dairy and to connect entrepreneurs with processors so that there is engagement on both sides.

“We now rely on ideas coming in from these entrepreneurs to help processing plants through the innovation process,” Talbot added.

The future of milk is … milk? by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

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Gener8tor is the biggest startup accelerator you’ve never heard of

The U.S. Midwest generates a lot of wealth and is home to myriad huge corporations. With corporations come pension funds, foundations and other collections of great wealth. One of the ways that those pots of cash are being invested is through venture capital, which means the money flows to the coasts — New York, Boston, Silicon Valley. For the past decade, Gener8tor has been working to shift that by spinning up accelerators in local communities that have money but are underserved in terms of startup support.

We spoke with the Gener8tor founders about why they are passionate about thinking about the startup ecosystem a little differently.

“One of the challenges we face that I don’t think is talked about enough is that much of the capital in Boston or Silicon Valley comes from pension funds and foundations based in our communities,” said Joe Kirgues, co-founder of Gener8tor. “These communities are taking their dollars and investing it elsewhere. And then bringing back pennies on the dollar to do charity in our communities. And it’s fueling a lot of the discrepancies we see in the country.”

“Where we invest, there was not a lot of capital yesterday. There’s not a lot of capital today and there won’t be a lot of capital tomorrow.” Gener8tor co-founder Joe Kirgues

Gener8tor has flown under the radar a little despite putting a lot of points on the board: It has been operating for more than a decade and has had 34 exits (including Pretty Litter, Curate, GrocerKey and Bright Cellars). More than 1,000 companies have cycled through its accelerator, and it was named 2022’s VC firm of the year by The International Trade Council. And yet, the name isn’t as well-known as other comparably sized accelerators.

Gener8tor is running accelerators across the U.S. Image Credits: Gener8tor

Gener8tor has some impressive stats under its belt: 80% of its startups are outside of major tech hubs, and more than two-thirds of the companies in the accelerators are led by underrepresented founders. It’s a hell of an operation, too. Headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, the accelerator has 147 full-time employees, accelerators in 41 locations across 22 states, and $1.3 billion in total funding deployed.

The company told me that 1,068 startups have graduated from one of its 104 annual accelerator programs, including:

  • Gener8tor investment accelerator is a standard cash-for-equity accelerator that has helped more than 200 companies raise more than $800 million.
  • Gener8tor gBETA is a free accelerator that accepts five startups into a seven-week program. More than 700 companies have gone through gBETA.
  • Gener8tor Skills is a partnership with Gener8tor, Microsoft and TechSpark that focuses on upskilling workers who want to train for roles in high-demand fields such as customer service or software development. The company said more than 1,000 people have gone through the program, with half securing new careers in the past 24 months.
  • The Gener8tor OnRamp Conference is a series of vertical-specific events, including education, insurance, agriculture, manufacturing, and healthcare.

As a business, the company claims to be doing just fine, too, showing some pretty impressive investment metrics:

[gallery size="medium" ids="2457217,2457218,2457219"]

I talked with the co-founders, Troy Vosseller and Joe Kirgues, to learn more about how it all hangs together and what it sees as the future of its operations.

Troy Vosseller and Joe Kirgues, co-founders of Gener8tor, at its 10-year anniversary celebration. Image Credits: Gener8tor / Scott Paulus

“Both Joe and I were lawyers, and we met working on transactions together, both on the startup and the investor side. Joe and I hit it off, and shared the perspective that there was a lot of lacking efficiency for an entrepreneur to go from an idea to incorporating a business, growing that business, raising venture capital, so on and so forth,” Vosseller said. “We’re both admirers of the accelerator model, starting with Paul Graham and YC. Reading his original essays about the program provided a lot of inspiration. And it dawned on us that we could do that here in Wisconsin. Joe and I quit our jobs. We found a group of angel investors out of the Milwaukee area who share that same vision and passion. And we’ve been doing Gener8tor ever since then — that was 10 years ago.”

The team’s first program was in Milwaukee in 2012, and for a while they alternated running annual programs in Milwaukee and Madison. Work with startups, invest in startups, help them grow. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Although YC may have been the inspiration for Gener8tor, the duo tells me things were a little different a decade ago.

“I think there were more local accelerators between 2012 and 2014 than there are today. To some degree, there has been a sifting and winnowing. I think the same is playing out on the national scene. I think there’s been some coalescence around a handful of programs,” Vosseller explained. “We’re bumping into the likes Techstars, 500 Startups, MassChallenge and Alchemist, of course, but it’s a much smaller grouping than what it was 10 years ago.”

500 Global’s take on the rising competition among startup accelerators

 

Both Kirgues and Vosseller are obviously passionate about driving local ecosystems forward.

“My joke is that when you write $20,000 checks to a bunch of 20-somethings and expect them to build a $100 million company from it, that’s what it’s like to be crazy, but not self-aware. Building a startup is a hard task in any market, but even more so in these nascent ecosystems. What we found is if you try to close the soft skill gap first — if you get the founders in the room with investors, and if you help them prepare for it — there’s just as many bright people born in a community as any other,” Kirgues said. “If you work on solving that problem, just on a one-to-one basis, you can get a lot further than then I think we realized at the time.”

The duo became hyper-focused on building up emerging ecosystems, starting with Madison and Milwaukee, and later broadening the approach to more and more cities.

Gener8tor is the biggest startup accelerator you’ve never heard of by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

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6 reasons why you shouldn’t join an accelerator

Saba Karim Contributor
Saba Karim is director of the startup pipeline at Techstars.

As the head of startup pipeline at Techstars, I’ve been getting on calls with founders, attending events, speaking on stages like TechCrunch’s Disrupt and hosting countless Twitter Spaces. Each time, I’ve been telling founders why they should join an accelerator.

Now, I am changing things up and going to lay out six reasons you shouldn’t join an accelerator.

If you only need funding

You’re better off going to VCs, angel investors, crowdfunding, applying for grants or seeking venture debt. Accelerators usually take more (equity), because they provide more than just money. They give you funding and fundraising opportunities, mentorship and networks, workshops and usually a place to work. If you don’t need any of that, then you don’t need an accelerator.

Accelerators are great because they’re a forcing mechanism to reach your most desired outcome by the end of the program, but no one is going to drag you out of bed every morning.

Keep in mind that funding will solve your money problems, but it won’t solve everything else. You’ll still need to figure out how to acquire customers, find the best talent, build an incredible product, assemble a great advisory board and get to product-market fit.

Do you just need funding? Lucky you. For crowdfunding, you can’t go wrong with Republic or WeFunder. For venture debt options, check out SVB or Mercury, and OpenGrants for, well, grants.

To do customer development

Customer development, also known as customer discovery or idea validation, is the notion of validating your startup idea. You don’t need an accelerator to tell you to talk to your customers. You should be doing it anyway. Otherwise, why are you building the thing you want to build?

Yes, many accelerators accept companies at the idea stage, but it’s usually on the premise that primary or secondary research has been conducted to show you’re building something people have said they would use and/or pay for.

6 reasons why you shouldn’t join an accelerator by Ram Iyer originally published on TechCrunch

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Asset management firm Stone Ridge launches Bitcoin-focused accelerator program

Asset management firm Stone Ridge has launched a startup accelerator, In Wolf’s Clothing (Wolf), that will be dedicated to growing Bitcoin-focused applications, the team exclusively told TechCrunch.

The program will bring four cohorts per year, each consisting of about eight to 12 teams, or about 30 to 50 founders, to New York City from around the world for eight weeks at a time to focus on building on the Bitcoin-centric Lightning Network and Taro protocol, Kelly Brewster, CEO of Wolf, said to TechCrunch.

The Lightning Network is a layer-2 payment system built on top of Bitcoin that aims to enable faster payment transactions. Separately, Taro is a protocol that launched in April of this year to help issue digital assets on Bitcoin’s blockchain that can then be transferred to Lightning Network instantly in low-fee transactions.

“They’re both generic and usable enough in such a wide range of applications that it’s like saying you’re starting an accelerator focused on HTTP,” Brewster said. “It’s a specific technology but the business use cases can be incredibly broad ranging. The fact that we’re very focused is a big part of the leg up and can be a big draw for founders.”

Teams in the accelerator will range from small startup teams to early-stage companies. They will receive individual investments of $250,000, while one winner of the cohort will get an additional $500,000 for a total of $750,000, Brewster said.

Some themes Brewster is interested in seeing startups expand upon include micropayments and tipping through Lightning and Taro.

NYDIG, a subsidiary of Stone Ridge, is also supporting the accelerator, alongside mentorship and investments from Bitcoin-focused venture capital firms and operating companies. The names of companies providing outside capital will not be released, Brewster said. However, he added that all investors and mentors are already working with Bitcoin and Lightning. “That ranges from specialized VCs dedicated to Lightning up through public companies in fintech and banking.”

Prior to this role, Brewster was NYDIG’s chief marketing officer and he has worked for Stone Ridge for about six years. Before that, Brewster spent almost 10 years at Goldman Sachs “in a variety of roles,” he said. “Over the past six years, I’ve had the opportunity to help start a number of businesses and I’ve fallen in love with the process of taking an idea and turning it into a real thing.”

Lightning Network is a layer-2 payment protocol built on top of Bitcoin that aims to provide instant payments and scalability at a low cost for the blockchain. It allows users to send or receive Bitcoin quickly by making transactions off the main blockchain network or, as Coinbase said, “like an HOV lane on a highway.”

“At Stone Ridge, we’ve been watching Lightning for quite a while now,” Brewster said. “The network has hit critical mass over the last 12 months and there’s enough capacity now you can do real-world things pretty robustly on the network.”

In the past, the network has been implemented by Twitter for users to send and receive Bitcoin “tips” through Lightning Network-focused payments app Strike. It has also been implemented in the El Salvador government-created wallet, Chivo, so citizens can complete cross-border transactions.

“The growth in Lightning over the past year has been extraordinary,” Brewster said. “In some ways, it’s the perfect moment to step back and see where there is signal or just noise. Some of the clearest signals are coming from Lightning. The growth and network capacity has been hockey-sticking.”

The news comes at an interesting time for NYDIG, which recently laid off about 33% of its staff, according to a Wall Street Journal report last week. In December 2021, NYDIG raised $1 billion, which valued the company at over $7 billion it said.

Brewster declined to comment on the layoffs, but said, “The launch of Wolf should be a clear signal of Stone Ridge’s long-term belief and investment in Bitcoin. It’s obviously a difficult environment out there, but this is the time to make investments looking a couple years out.”

There are a number of crypto accelerator programs budding across the ecosystem. Some range from layer-2 blockchain-specific accelerators like Polygon’s to general web3-focused programs like Alliance DAO. While some offer capital like Wolf plans to, others invite investors to demo days in hopes that they invest in the startups’ projects.

“In times like this, the companies that get built will capture these secular trends and really take hold as they accelerate,” Brewster said. “So we think this is the perfect moment to build rather than try to do something ourselves at Stone Ridge — we want to help and empower hundreds of other founders.”

Asset management firm Stone Ridge launches Bitcoin-focused accelerator program by Jacquelyn Melinek originally published on TechCrunch

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Draper Startup House launches first accelerator program, choosing Austin as its home

Austin, Texas, is becoming the new home for large companies (Tesla), investors and startups alike. 

It is now also the new home for Tim Draper’s newest initiative to help support early-stage founders: Draper Startup House Accelerator Program.

Backed by Draper, of course, the program will launch in April 2022. As founder of the famed Silicon Valley venture capital firm known as Draper Fisher Jurvetson, or DFJ, Draper in 2018 introduced the Startup House concept. Today, there are more than 15 locations globally that are either hostels and/or co-working spaces aimed at traveling startup founders, digital nomads and other remote workers. Locations include Bali, Indonesia; Bangalore, India; and Valencia, Spain, among others. Besides Austin, the only other site in the U.S. is located in San Mateo, California, but that is a co-living space inside of Draper University.

This latest effort marks Draper Startup House’s only accelerator program, according to Daniel Wiegand, co-founder and president of DSH Accelerator.

DSH will hold two cohorts in 2022 — both in Austin, consisting of 10 startup teams from around the world. The first cohort will take place in April and the second in August. As part of the program, DSH will invest up to $100,000 in pre-seed startups. 

Each cohort will last three months, take place two times per year and be located in Austin in 2022 and across the globe in 2023.

“This will not be your typical accelerator, but in addition to standard practices such as investment from the newly raised Draper Startup House Accelerator Fund, mentors, workshops and a demo day, DSH plans to incorporate a strong leadership building component as well as unique activities that will test the founders’ grit, creativity and push them outside of their comfort zone,” Wiegand said.

It will be a mix of Draper University and a typical accelerator, he added.

The program will feature “unconventional twists to the standard accelerator model,” Wiegand told TechCrunch, and will be focused on early-stage deals across all industries. While the accelerator will accept applications from startups all over the world, the hope is that many of the startups will decide to continue their growth from Austin.

Startups will be required to live together for the entirety of the program, dedicating the three months entirely to building their business. Interested entrepreneurs, founders or startups that want to learn more or apply to be in either cohort can fill out the application here. 

“We look for really great founders who are building big companies and have huge ideas,” Wiegand told TechCrunch. “It’s really all about the founder, which is why through the program, we will do a lot of leadership training to see if they are founders that are poised to take their company to where they want to take it.”

DSH has also decided to add a co-living option for entrepreneurs who want to live in the house amongst the portfolio companies and participate in the programming, which is a paid program. They can get a single room for $2,500 a month or a shared bunk room for $900/month.

Initially, Draper’s intent was to launch its first U.S. location in Austin at SXSW as a hostel for entrepreneurs. The vision was to create a landing pad for entrepreneurs and startups traveling to Austin to get familiar with the local startup scene as well as the greater Draper network.

But then the COVID-19 pandemic led to SXSW being canceled and the city essentially shutting down. 

Recognizing that the pandemic would present extreme challenges, founders Katie Russel and Wiegand quickly pivoted to turn what was to be a hostel into a flexible coworking space for startups and entrepreneurs.

Over the past 18 months or so, Draper Startup House helped facilitate funding rounds for multiple Austin startups such as CoachTube, Mentor Method and Tabella.

“We saw the talent in Austin, as well as inquiries from startups across the globe looking to enter the U.S. and talent-rich Austin ecosystem,” Wiegand said. “We wanted a way to really hone in and double down on the startups we saw great potential in. As Katie and I grappled with how to do this, it became clearer and clearer that a pop-up accelerator was the right path forward.”

The model is designed to eventually allow DSH to reach even more startups all over the world. While the accelerator will continue to have at least one cohort located in Austin, DSH Accelerator plans on moving the second cohort to a new destination each year. Future plans consist of programs emerging in multiple cities simultaneously. 

Wiegand and Russel intentionally advocated to locate the accelerator somewhere other than in Silicon Valley.

“We’ve been working for four or five years in Silicon Valley. We’ve seen all the great opportunities and tools and resources that are here, but it’s just not accessible to everyone,” Wiegand explained. “It’s very expensive in Silicon Valley, especially for a startup that is bootstrapping. So what we pitched to him [Draper] was ‘hey, let us take this ecosystem and this brand that you’ve built over the last 20-30 years, and let us bundle up everything you have in San Mateo and spread it across the globe.”

For his part, Draper said in a statement: “We are very excited about how the Draper Startup Houses around the world are becoming beacons for entrepreneurs everywhere. The DSH Accelerator, based in Austin, will take advantage of the amazing startup environment in Austin and bring more activity to the Draper Ecosystem.” 

DSH will be conducting a month-long pilot in January.

Austin transplant Geoff Lewis wants to pop Silicon Valley’s ‘self-referential’ bubble

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Apple’s sustainability-focused Impact Accelerator invites first 15 Black- and brown-owned companies

Among Apple’s more recent social good initiatives is the Impact Accelerator, an effort launched about a year ago intended to find and elevate minority-owned small businesses taking on sustainability and climate change. The program now has its first 15 participants, gathered from all over the country for a three-month program and a shot at an Apple contract.

The Impact Accelerator is part of the company’s $100M Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, which is being divided between a number of efforts, some directly funding existing programs, some going to venture firms owned by people of color, and generally whatever the Initiative’s team thinks is a good investment.

These companies will take part in a three-month-long virtual program (the details are not discussed in Apple’s announcement post) and then will have the opportunity to become suppliers for Apple’s carbon neutral supply chain goals.

Apple announces new projects related to its $100 million pledge for racial equity and justice

Apple profiles all 15 companies in this list, but here are five that caught my eye:

  • Volt Energy Utility (Co-Founder: Gilbert Campbell III) – Developer of utility-scale solar projects with a focus on underserved communities.
  • Bench-Tek (Founder: Maria Castellon) – A manufacturer of lab benches that focuses on using environmentally friendly materials.
  • Vericool (Founder: Darrell Jobe) – Aims to make sustainable alternatives to Styrofoam and other packaging products, and makes a point of hiring formerly incarcerated folks.
  • Oceti Sakowin Power Authority (Chairman: Lyle Jack) – Not a company per se, but an NGO formed by six Sioux tribes dedicated to developing renewable energy in the Midwest and on reservations.
  • Mosaic Global Transportation (Founder: Maurice H. Brewster) – Supplies employee and event shuttles and other vehicles with an aim to replace gas-operated ones with EVs.

“The businesses we’re partnering with today are poised to become tomorrow’s diverse and innovative industry leaders, creating ripples of change to help communities everywhere adapt to the urgent challenges posed by climate change,” said Apple’s VP of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, Lisa Jackson, in the announcement.