The top 10 digital health accelerators
How much they invest, how long the program lasts and what they offer
Read more...For all the things that New York City is known for, technology is not really one of them. But that mindset is beginning to change.
New York is the home to a number of other industries, including advertising, fashion, financial services, media, and real estate. Now a technology sector is beginning to grow as well, with the emergence of e-commerce and consumer Internet startups, including Meetup, Gilt Groupe and Tumblr,
Of course, the city's development as a tech haven is helped by a growing list of accelerators and incubators sprouting up, helping bring to bring some of the best and brightest minds to New York.
Here are a few of the top accelerators and incubators that are helping to nurture that talent:
(Before we continue, it should be noted that there is a big difference between an accelerator and an incubator. While an accelerator funds ideas that were developed externally, an incubator brings in an external management team to manage an idea that was developed internally.)
TechStars, which offers programs in Austin, Boston, Boulder, Chicago, New York City, Seattle and London, was founded by David Cohen, Brad Feld, David Brown, and Jared Polis, and held its first program in 2007.
Investment amount: $118K in each company, through $18K in seed funding and an optional $100K convertible debt note.
Program benefits:
Mentor makeup: Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter; Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of WarbyParker;Fred Wilson, Partner at Union Square Ventures; Hayley Barna, co-Founder of Birchbox
Backers: TechStars is backed by over 75 different venture capital firms and angel investors
Portfolio companies: Of 211 graduates, 79% are still active, 9% were acquired and 10% failed. Alumni include Foodzie, which was acquired by Joyus last year; Postmaster, which recently raised $600,000; Bizible; 10Sheet; and Cloudability.
Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator
Investment amount: An initial $40,000 investment and the potential for follow-on funding fromERA’sFund
Program benefits:
A four month program consisting of:
Portfolio companies: Alumni include Machinio; Get Maid; LocalBonus; and Parking Panda.
FinTech Innovation Lab has held two programs so far, beginning in 2011. It is an annual program,takingplace during the summer of every year, run by the New York City Investment Fund and Accenture forearlyand growth companies.
Investment amount: All winners also have the option of receiving a $25,000 in the form of a notethatconverts into the company's next round of equity financing.
Program benefits:
A 12-week program where Six companies receive:
Backers: The Partnership Fund for New York City, and Accenture
Portfolio companies: Alumni include Zipmark; Lenddo; CB Insights; and Billguard.
First Growth Venture Network was founded in 2009.
Investment amount: "First Growth is a venture network and it is possible that a rapport willdevelopbetween one or more funders and a start-up, but the start-up is not obligated and neither are theVCsand angels"
Program benefits:
Mentor makeup: Paul Cook, Founder and CEO, TagMan; Julie Hansen, COO & President of BusinessInsider; Jeremy Helfand, Vice President of Monetization at Adobe; Michael Lazerow, Chairman and CEO of Buddy Media; Jordy Leiser, CEO and Co-founder of STELLAService; and Jeremy Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer at 2Tor.
Portfolio companies: First Growth Venture Network counts seventy five companies as alumni, including Zokos; Arkad; Food52; and and Lionesquestyle.
Investment amount: A stipend of between $10,000 and $25,000 ($5,000 plus $5,000 for each founding team member (up to four) who will be onsite for the program). DreamIt also receives a 6% passive equity stake in the company.
Program benefits:
Mentor makeup: Alex Miller, Vice-President of eCommerce & eMarketing at QVC; Andrew Eisner, Founder and COO of Movable Media; Brock Weatherup, the CEO of PetFoodDirect; and Dan Abelon, the President and Co-Founder of SpeedDate.com.
Portfolio companies: Alumni include Trendkite; Brideside; Betdash; Mindsnacks; and SeatGeek.
Women Innovate Mobile is a startup accelerator and mentorship-driven program designed for women-founded companies in mobile technology.
Investment amount: WIM receives an equity stake in each company
Program benefits:
Mentor makeup: Christine Lee, VP and GM of Partner Relations at Tapjoy; Guillaume Gauthereau, Founder and CEO of Totsy; Megan Berry, Founder of LiftFive; Shauna Mei, co-founder and CEO of AHAlife; Tara Hunt, CEO of Buyosphere.
Portfolio companies: Women Innovate Mobile's first program took place in 2012, with three companies graduating: Appguppy, Loudly and Sqlvision.
Astia: Founded in 1999 in Silicon Valley, Astia is a global not-for-profit organization that propels women's full participation as entrepreneurs and leaders in high-growth businesses, fueling innovation and driving economic growth. It has offices in Silicon Valley, New York, Europe and India.
Program benefits:
Astia works with companies on:
Backers: Astia is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization that is generously supported by - and our offering for entrepreneurs is heavily subsidized by - committed individuals, foundations, and corporations. Most notably, in 2010 Astia received a $500,000 commitment from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
Portfolio companies: Since 2003, Astia has worked with over 250 women-led companies that have raised over $1 billion, maintained a greater than 60% funding success rate within one year of joining and achieved 22 exits, including 2 IPOs.
NYC Seed focuses on software and technology companies with its SeedStart program/
Investment amount: Each company receives $20,000. NYC SeedStart will take a five% equity stake in the company.
Program benefits:
Mentor makeup: Joe Covey, CEO of Mag Rack Entertainment; James Green, serial entrepreneur and CEO of Giant Realm; Are Traasdahl, founder and CEO of Thumbplay; Lubna Dajani, founder and CEO of Stratemerge.
Backers: Partners include ITAC, The New York City Economic Development Corporation, The New York City Investment Fund, NYSTAR and Polytechnic Institute of NYU
Portfolio companies: Alumni include Magnetic; Ticketfly; Coursehorse; and Fieldlens.
Founder Institute is an early-stage startup accelerator and global launch network that helps entrepreneurs create meaningful and enduring technology companies.
Investment amount:
Each Graduate contributes 3.5% of their company equity in Warrants to a 10-year Bonus Pool with other peers from the current semester. The Pool returns are then distributed as follows:
If a company is successful and receives significant financing from third parties, the Institute asks that the company pay a one-time Tuition of $4,500, which supplies the growth capital for the Institute.
Program benefits: A 16 week program, in which The Founder Institute offers a weekly curriculum of company-building sessions designed to help entrepreneurs think through every aspect of their business. Each session is lead by three startup CEO Mentors, who share their opinions on the topic, and provide our founders with expert feedback and advice. Participating Founders are given assignments to build key aspects of their companies between the sessions that are completed in Working Groups with their peers. Session include:
Mentor makeup: Aaron Patzer, Founder and CEO of Mint.com; Adeo Ressi, CEO of The Funded.com; Brian Wong, Founder & CEO of Kiip; Bubba Murarka, member of the Business Development team at Facebook; Seth Sternberg, co-founder & former CEO of Meebo.
Portfolio companies: 807 companies have graduated from Founder Institute, with 91% still operating, and having created over 5,000 jobs. Alumni include Retailigence; Puzzazz; Realty Mogul; and Spikes.
Black Ocean:
Investment amount: "We fund our companies to the point where they have discovered and validated a repeatable, scalable business model. At which point we often seek to bring in new capital partners to accelerate our growth."
Program benefits: "We centralize HR, Legal and Accounting to allow our teams to focus on building their core business"
Portfolio companies: Alumni include Appnation; Bimbasket; Tastebuds; and Grapple.
Nest New York: a combination soft landing and launch pad for proven North European, Russian and other foreign startups to enter the US market.
Investment amount: Companies can pay as little as $500 a month just for the space, or $5,000 a month for the team, partners, fundraising and investor introductions.
Program benefits:
Backers: Partnerships with Skolkovo Tech Park and Skolkovo FoundaOon from Russia
Portfolio companies: Alumni include Shortcutmedia, Beintoo, Thinglink and Curiator.
Have we missed your accelerator or incubator? Let me know which ones I've missed in the comments section!
(Image source: https://www.catalogs.com)
How much they invest, how long the program lasts and what they offer
Read more...They include MedTech Innovator, The TMCx Accelerator, Insight Accelerator Labs and KOA Accel
Read more...They include Zurich Innovation Championship, VentureClash and FFiT InsurTech Competition
Read more...Startup/Business
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Parking Panda will locate you and show you the spots around you by distance or price. You can then park in a spot and pay for it directly from your mobile phone. Alternatively, if you prefer you can go online and reserve your space before you ever leave home so you know exactly where you are going in advance. This solution helps owners make extra money on their driveways and saves drivers pain and money by helping them avoid the long waits and high prices at parking garages.
Startup/Business
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RealtyMogul.com launched in 2013 with one mission: simplify real estate investing by connecting real estate companies and investors through cutting-edge technology.
Today we are a leading online real estate capital marketplace, offering commercial equity and commercial debt products nationwide, educating our investors, and building a company that will change real estate investing and financing forever.
RealtyMogul.com brings over 200 years of collective experience underwriting, managing, and acquiring over $5 billion in real estate across asset classes and markets nationally.
We have made significant investments in Data Science, Technology, Legal and Operations. Our core value, “Access Through Innovation” and our commitment to “Investor Protection” inspire us to bring the best experience to borrowers and investors alike.
Since our inception, RealtyMogul.com has funded over $190MM, totaling over $700MM in aggregate property value. Our crowdfunding investment platform has grown past 23,000 accredited investors. To date, RealtyMogul.com has returned over $25MM in principal and interest to our investors.
RealtyMogul.com’s growth story continues in 2016. With six locations in San Francisco, Irvine, Houston, Atlanta, New York City and a major expansion at our Los Angeles headquarters, we are poised to lead the online real estate investing revolution.
Startup/Business
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Tag Management System. A term we coined, a market we started.
TagMan - makes installing any tag based online marketing application easy and tracks all online media for path-to-conversion and Attribution reports.
Tagman shaves months off Omniture /Coremetrics /Webtrends and any other pixels or tag implementation & future proofs it.
See our research on our website on what this saves your business and what tagging costs a company.
By acting as a single system through which tags can be deployed to an advertiser’s web site, the software aims to enable online marketers to regain control of their marketing data, track users throughout their path to conversion and save time and money in the way they add, edit and remove online tracking tags on their websites.
Clients include online advertisers and agencies in the UK, US and Germany, including 3 of the top 5 retailers, 2 major airlines, one major bank and 2 of the largest grocery chains.
Startup/Business
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Lenddo.com is the first service to use online social networks and endorsements to calculate credit worthiness.
Lenddo seek to improve the lives of millions. The community helps members use their online reputation to access financial services, which in turn fosters economic development, and a better standard of living.
The Lenddo community is designed to empower the emerging markets middle class by providing simple tools to manage financial reputation, help their community and connect with interested institutional lenders.
Lenddo was started with the belief that professionals in emerging markets should have access to the same high level of financial products and services as are enjoyed in more mature financial markets such as Japan, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States. The Lenddo community helps its members measure and maintain their online reputation, with the goal of providing a Lenddo Score that can help access credit and other financial services.
Startup/Business
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Kiip lets premium brands provide rewards to casual mobile gamers for in-game achievements. Their platform is designed for in-game engagement via a universal game moment: the achievement moment. Catch the user while they are the most engaged, happy, and attentive. They're the first solution to help premium brands reach the exploding casual mobile gaming market using real estate in meaningful moments. Currently the network reaches just over 20 million smartphone players worldwide.
A bit more here: http://bit.ly/kiipwelcome
Startup/Business
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SeatGeek forecasts the price of sports and concert ticket on the secondary market, analogous to what Farecast (now Bing Travel) does for airline tickets. For ticket buyers this helps determine whether to buy a ticket immediately or wait for a price drop. For sellers it helps identify the optimal time to unload their tickets.
SeatGeek’s crawlers have compiled millions of ticket transactions and have also aggregated other factors that influence prices. SeatGeek's patent-pending technology uses this data to accurately predict prices.
SeatGeek offers a free version for buyers and will soon release a premium version for brokers and other sellers.
Startup/Business
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Thumbplay.com is the largest and fastest growing mobile entertainment content destination online, providing consumers access to the broadest and deepest catalog, spanning audio, video and gaming content from the leading music labels, game publishers and media companies. Users can discover, purchase, manage and share mobile content on their wireless devices.
Startup/Business
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Magnetic™ is search re-targeting. The Magnetic data marketplace empowers advertisers and publishers to use search data as the key indicator of intent and re-target campaigns to the most relevant audience online. With more than 200 million search profiles, Magnetic significantly lifts the value of media and improves campaign performance.
Startup/Business
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We're creating a better, more efficient way for consumers to discover and buy food from artisan producers. Attitudes are shifting when it comes to food, and people want to know more about the food theyʼre eating, particularly who's making it, what it's made of, and where it comes from. We are creating an online community that will make it easy for high-quality artisan producers to sell their products direct to consumers and for foodies not only to buy food, but to learn about and share the products they love.Startup/Business
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Postmaster simplifies and optimizes the small package shipping process, and takes the pain out of integrating with carriers like FedEx, UPS, USPS, Canada Post, and regional carriers. An intelligent, cloud-based platform for SMBs and eCommerce companies, its simple REST API saves time and money throughout the lifecycle of shipping by providing businesses with real-time shipping cost prediction, intelligent routing and service level optimization, detailed shipment tracking, powerful reporting and auditing tools and more. Postmaster is a TechStars Cloud company based in Austin, TX and was founded in 2012.
Startup/Business
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About 2tor, Inc.
2tor, Inc. partners with top-tier universities to deliver rigorous, selective graduate programs online. Founded in 2008 by a unique team of education veterans, the company provides universities with the web technologies, infrastructural support and capital needed to compete in a space previously dominated by mediocre online programs. 2tor is one of the highest-funded education technology start-ups in the United States. The company has partnered with prestigious research universities to deliver the following groundbreaking online degree programs:
Startup/Business
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Tapjoy is the leading platform company for social and mobile applications. The company’s turnkey alternative payment platform enables developers to significantly increase their monetization rates when selling virtual goods or premium digital assets, while its cross-platform distribution services provide massive reach and cost-effective user acquisition on the leading social, mobile and gaming platforms. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Investors include Rho Ventures, Interwest Capital, North Bridge Venture Partners, and D. E. Shaw Ventures. For more information, visit www.tapjoy.com.
Startup/Business
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All your cloud billing in one place.
Cloudability gives you a comprehensive billing view for all the services you’ve got running in the cloud. Add your cloud accounts, set budget limits, and choose notification preferences to take control of your budget.
It’s like Mint.com for the Cloud.
Startup/Business
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Retailigence is a hyperlocal marketing platform that utilizes brick-and-mortar inventory data obtained directly from retailers to turn online consumers into offline buyers. Serving both retailers and brands, Retailigence distributes local store inventory-based advertising via its own network of location-based application partners, mobile ad networks, mobile ad exchanges, search providers and social networks.
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