Monica Selby
One of the biggest success indicators for accelerators is follow-on funding for its graduates. If a company can lure in more investment, the accelerator can consider its job of training, mentoring, and–well–accelerating the startups done.
Yesterday Memphis-based Start Co announced follow-on funding for half of its 2013 Seed Hatchery cohort. The 3 companies received a combined $700k from the Start Co Angels.
“This is a significant milestone for startups in the Memphis community, and we’re proud of the graduates and our role in building out an angel fund and network in Memphis, something the community has not seen in nearly a decade,” Start Co’s founder and CEO Eric Mathews said. “We see these funding rounds as a tipping point for our current programs, where later stage investment will be less of an exception and more of an opportunity for the teams that move through our programs and utilize our resources.”
Start Co as an organization is overseeing much of the growth and development of the Memphis startup community. From office hours to mentorship to a free coworking space, they offer entrepreneurs a full range of tools to grow from idea to company.
Of the three companies who received funding, 2 of them (MentorMe and Screwpulp) got their starts at a Start Co 48 Hour Launch event, where they presented their ideas and spent the weekend building them out.
Ebook publishing and purchasing platform Screwpulp received $330k to continue to build out their service.
Musistic overcomes the limitations artists have when trying to collaborate from a distance. Their $200k investments validates the pivot the team made during the accelerator.
MentorMe is an online platform that matches mentors and mentees. Brit Fitzpatrick pitched the idea on a whim at the first Women’s 48 Hour Launch in October 2012. When she was accepted to the Seed Hatchery in January, she quit her job and never looked back.
“Right now we’re in beta with select partner organizations,” Fitzpatrick told me. “By March we’ll have at least 8 customers using our platform. The funding will allow us to complete our betas and continue to develop our product so that we can scale nationally this year in the youth and higher education mentorship spaces.”
Start Co is currently accepting applications to its 3 accelerator programs which will start later this spring.
You know what else is in Memphis this spring? Yup! We’re excited, too!
