Techstars has announced the first cohort of companies accepted into its accelerator in Toronto.
According to the Financial Post, 650 startups applied for a spot. Startups hail from the Netherlands, Ukraine, China and the US.
Announced in March 2017, Techstars chose Toronto as its first Canadian accelerator, with Real Ventures as a partner. Techstars later announced that Sunil Sharma would take the helm as managing director of the accelerator, and that the accelerator has the ability to grant startup visas. Tariq Haddadin is currently the program manager at Techstars Toronto.
“I am confident in the long-term potential of these 10 companies. They are tackling very large problems in very big verticals and are adopting aggressive tactics,” said Sharma. “Most importantly, they are great people who are a pleasure to work with and the overall energy in the space is electric.”
Operating the same as its other US accelerators, startups accepting into the program receive $100,000 USD convertible note and $20,000 USD in exchange for a six percent equity stake.
“We are thrilled to have such a strong first class at Techstars Toronto,” said Haddadin. “We are looking forward to building a strong network of Techstars alumni in Canada to add to the quality of entrepreneurs in our local and global network. There is a great talent pool in Canada and we are looking to capitalize on that with the Techstars brand.”
The startups in the three-month program include:
- Cinchy: a platform that eliminates the need for application-specific databases.
- Distributed ID: a private digital identity network that monitors a customer’s behaviour to fight fraud
- Elmy: an online marketplace to discover and book appointments with local beauty professionals.
- Flipd: an app that nudges users to stay off their phones while they’re trying to learn, focus, or study.
- Flow.AI: a drag-and-drop platform to create chatbots, voice assistants, customer service, or conversational commerce solutions.
- KitchenMate: targeted to offices, the company offers machine that cooks meal kits.
- LumiereVR: Creates immersive VR experiences for brands.
- Senso.AI: predictive customer acquisition and retention platform for the mortgage industry.
- Tread: secures, manages, and finances construction equipment services such as manned dump trucks, cranes, and excavators.
- WISK: a beverage analytics for restaurants, bars and hotels.