The 11th cohort of Techstars Seattle officially kicked off a 3-month journey today at the Seattle-based accelerator.
Techstars Seattle, the third version of Techstars after Boulder and Boston, has graduated 110 companies since 2010. Alumni of the accelerator — companies such as Remitly, Outreach, Skilljar, Bizible, Leanplum and Zipline — have collectively raised nearly $1.2 billion in investment capital. Techstars Seattle is part of a larger Techstars network that includes 50 programs across the globe and also features a Techstars venture capital fund and a startup studio model.
See the full list of companies below.
New leader
- Serial entrepreneur Isaac Kato is the new managing director of Techstars Seattle. He replaces Chris DeVore, the former managing director who stepped down last year after nearly five years leading Techstars Seattle.
- Kato told GeekWire he will mostly follow the same script from years past. He’s focused on helping founders learn core entrepreneurial leadership principles and practices.
- Kato was previously president of Seattle startup MightyAI, which sold to Uber last year. He founded and led London-based data center company Verne Global for nearly a decade. The Stanford and Harvard grad also previously co-founded and sold Sven Technologies in the late 90s before stints at two investment firms.
Diversity
- This cohort is diverse — in a variety of ways.
- Location: The companies hail from Seattle to Philadelphia to Estonia.
- Sector: They work across industries such as enterprise software to healthcare to fintech.
- Founder background: There are three startups with female founders and various team members who are underrepresented minorities.
- “We really made an effort to source from a variety of diverse founder pools, and have a diverse screening committee,” Kato said. DeVore previously addressed the program’s lack of diversity.
Key part of Seattle tech ecosystem
- Kato, who arrived in Seattle 18 months ago, described Techstars Seattle as a “community asset.” He said he’s been blown away by the help and support he’s received from colleagues across the region. “Everyone is genuinely excited about Techstars,” Kato said.
- Techstars Seattle is one of many local programs helping groom entrepreneurs and startups, some of which are already in town but also others outside of Seattle who end up staying permanently after going through the accelerator. Those companies add to a robust startup ecosystem that is still growing.
- “We are only in the middle innings when it comes to the growth and scale of this ecosystem,” Kato said. “The flywheel is spinning but it’s going to get a lot bigger and spin faster in the years to come.”
- Demo Day is scheduled for April 29 in Seattle.
Meet the Techstars Seattle Class of 2020:
- Caravel (Portland, Ore.) — “Real-time R&D for commerce”
- Introwise (Estonia) — “Unified platform for events and communities”
- MD Ally (Philadelphia, Pa.) — “Enabling non-emergency 911 navigation to more appropriate sites of care”
- neu (Seattle, Wash.) — “The hassle-free cleaning solution for vacation rentals”
- Olive Technologies (Vancouver, B.C.) — “Transforming how enterprises evaluate and purchase tech with community and AI”
- Retrocasual (Seattle, Wash.) — “Computer vision intelligence for occupational analytics, efficiency, and training”
- Shotcall (Atlanta, Ga.) — “Creating meaningful engagement and media opportunities through gaming and streaming”
- Spyn Pay (Seattle, Wash.) — “Credit card that helps you spend confidently and responsibly”
- Yave (Seattle, Wash.) — “Yave decommodifies coffee and cacao by matching farmers with roasters”
- Zendoc (Seattle, Wash.) — “Smart contract management”
Source: Geek Wire
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