Four graduates of Start Co.’s accelerators have received $997,000 in capital investment: The College Initiative, Core Fire Commandos, Pickle and Well Done.
With the latest round of funding, the 2014 cohort companies from Start Co. have raised a little more than $2 million since completing their accelerator programs.
The College Initiative, an organization that provides college-ready low-income and underserved high school students with the tools, support and mentoring to apply and succeed in college, received $767,000. Gabriel Fotsing, the organization’s founder, raised funds to ramp up operations in the Mid-South to serve 500 students in direct programming and 5,000 students in outreach programming.
Core Fire Commandos uses mock emergency and disaster situations to provide team-building, problem-solving and critical thinking. The company will use the $100,000 in funding it received to build out a cloud-based portal that youth can use to translate their experiences into real life by growing relationships, receiving mentoring and tracking real-life accomplishments. Both organizations were graduates of the Sky High Accelerator.
Pickle and Well Done, graduates of Seed Hatchery, received $100,000 and $30,000, respectively, in funding. Pickle is a brand-engagement platform that utilizes competitive selfies and photo-sharing to engage customers. Cofounders Evan Katz and Morgan Steffy raised $20,000 in October 2014 and will use the new funding to continue developing their platform and growing their user base.
Well Done, which received $30,000, provides cloud-based point-of-sale software and related services for the restaurant industry. Cofounders Ken Watts and Brian Edwards plan to use the funding to develop new features, technical documentation and improve infrastructure in preparation for scaling.
“Each of these companies demonstrated their commitment to growth and further building their business during the post-accelerator program,” said Andre Fowlkes, president of Start Co. “We will continue to build resources and support for our programs and the startup ecosystem as we welcome our upcoming accelerator cohort. And we look forward to tapping into the strong mentorship base we’ve cultivated from graduate teams and the Memphis business community.”
Beginning May 4, the Upstart, Seed Hatchery and Sky High accelerators will again run simultaneously through the summer in Downtown Memphis.
Sign up for free email newsletters delivering exclusive news scoops and local business intelligence from the Memphis Business Journal.