Techstars London has today unveiled its latest cohort – the most diverse in the London accelerator’s history.
It says 96% of the founders involved are either female or from minority or immigrant backgrounds.
67% of the businesses are female-led, while 42% have a female CEO; 15% of the founders are black and 69% are from a minority background.
The early stage startups originate from countries across the globe, including the USA, Nigeria, Malaysia and Denmark – all of whom have chosen Techstars London as the place to grow their business.
The accelerator received more than 1,000 applicants for the programme and conducted over 400 interviews ahead of selecting the final group for 12 coveted spots.
Three quarters (75%) of businesses focus on solving ESG challenges – from reducing our heating bills and fossil fuel use to better access to healthcare to driving a circular economy.
The businesses range across B2B and B2C industries, and include a company dedicated to transforming global logistics and its CO2 footprint and a personalised digital therapy service for women.
Designed to assist startup founders in supercharging their plans, Techstars London’s programme is guided by an experienced team including managing director, experienced VC and former founder and startup veteran Saalim Chowdhury.
Each business will engage in an intense programme where they build a playbook to grow at a rapid pace, through to and beyond their Series A. On this journey they will be coached with one-to-one mentorship from multiple former startup founders, assigned dedicated growth coaches, customised training and access to capital as they find focus, in order to aggressively grow and scale their businesses.
London is Techstars’ third largest base globally, and part of a larger network that includes 50 programmes across the world. One of the world’s leading accelerators, Techstars has invested in more than 3,000 companies that today have a combined graduate market cap valuation of $75 billion.
“As a third culture kid, I know just how important community is. I also know how lonely entrepreneurship is,” said Eissra Eltom, founder at cohort member Verve.
“As we set out on our company mission to help globally distributed teams keep connected, the opportunity to be part of a thriving global community ourselves is what drew us to Techstars. We love the candour, encouragement and critique of the Techstars London team.
“As a first-time founder you bounce between visionary optimism and functional pragmatism; the team has challenged us to focus on what makes us uniquely different as founders to truly channel our passions into our businesses.”
Chowdhury said: “Growing a business at any time is hard. Throw in a bout of economic turmoil and increased uncertainty, and founders starting up are presented with an increasingly difficult task – and that doesn’t take into account the ongoing challenges faced by underrepresented founders.
“We know that outlier founders drive outlier performance. Overwhelmingly most of our founders have overcome many social challenges and adversity to get to where they are.
“Their above average level of determination, tenacity and intellect is why we’ve chosen them. Equally they over-index on deep customer empathy and humility – they are intimately intertwined with their customers and we’re looking forward to seeing what they achieve.”
New cohort
Verve – helping distributed companies keep their cultures thriving with better data-driven company understanding
Kitchenswaps – a marketplace for underutilised commercial kitchen space
Boxxdocks – building a sustainable global network of logistics boxes, to provide industry standard solutions for a $77 billion market
Fyyne – a marketplace for beauty services and products. A business management software for underserved, independent beauty artists to connect them with customers looking to book them
Kestrl – app helping Muslims to grow their wealth without compromising on their beliefs, using a personal finance tool and a software solution for banks
Matutto – Matutto is a relocation platform that helps expats feel confident when moving abroad with reliable information and advice from other expats
Re-Style – a Treatwell for tailoring, connecting people with local tailors to alter and repair their clothes
Harp Health – developing personalised digital therapies for different stages of women’s lives
Motics – using wearable technology to gamify physiotherapy and improve recovery times through actionable muscle insights
Zephframe – making smart building energy management software that helps buildings greatly reduce energy use from heating and cooling
Don’t Shop Swap – allowing Gen Z to trade their clothes for digital tokens to spend on preloved fashion, helping them refresh their wardrobes, save money and reduce waste
Gravel AI – bringing data-driven decisions to the $4 trillion chemical manufacturing industry by creating granular ‘chemical level’ insights at scale taking on the likes of Mintel
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