Techstars Atlanta, the local iteration of the international entrepreneurship mentorship and accelerator program for early-stage startups, has named its 2020 cohort, attracting a Canadian fintech firm as this year’s sole non-U.S. participant.
Toronto-based Treasure, an app that aims to help parents teach kids financial responsibility, joins nine other cohort members including three from Atlanta, two from Washington D.C., one from Nashville and others spread around the nation.
Treasure is to arrive in a city that is becoming known internationally as a hub for financial technology and payments; that trend has been recognized by the Canadian government, which sponsored last year’s Fintech South conference and participated in the high-level P20 payments forum.
One of Atlanta’s recent standouts, in fact, is Greenlight Technologies, which offers a debit card for kids and an app through which parents can allow kids to set goals and accelerate savings through matching programs. Greenlight recently raised $54 million to continue its expansion.
The 13-week Techstars program, usually based out of Ponce City Market, will go virtual this year amid the pandemic. In October, the mentorship-heavy program will culminate in an online demo day where the startups pitch to mentors and funders.
Techstars has recruited heavily internationally since it arrived in Atlanta in 2016, with local representatives fielding applications from as far away as Russia and India and taking a roadshow early on to Israel and Lagos, Nigeria.
Among its global participants to date are a Latvian firm that helps game developers monetize their creations, a Nigerian crowdfunding platform for farmers and a variety of Israeli firms. The first Canadian startup, UCIC, was part of the inaugural Techstars Atlanta class. Some have stuck around after the initial program, setting down roots in the city.
That’s one outcome Cox Enterprises has hoped to incentivize by funding the program, said Mark Lewis, vice president of strategy and corporate development at Cox, who praised Atlanta’s advantages.
“Businesses have access to talent from the city’s powerhouse educational institutions, and the diverse community offers access to new ideas and ways of thinking. By attracting top talent and helping businesses scale, we are committed to making Atlanta a vibrant ecosystem,” Mr. Lewis said in a news release.
More info in the release here, or find out more about the 2020 cohort below:
- Arrived (Seattle, Wash.) | A residential real estate company that empowers renters to build equity and accelerate their path to home ownership.
- AutoDo-It (Alpharetta, Ga.) | A one-stop-shop community and e-commerce platform built to empower the DIY/DIFM automotive communities.
- BOS Framework (Nashville, Tenn.) | A comprehensive approach to building better products faster, allowing developers to set up a new project in the cloud with DevOps and built-in functionality in under five minutes.
- Growth Collective (Atlanta, Ga.) | A streamlined service that connects clients to its exclusive network of vetted, independent marketing talent.
- Meal Me (Atlanta, Ga.) An app that helps users find restaurants from multiple food delivery apps and compares them to find the fastest and cheapest options.
- Please Assist Me (Washington, D.C.) An all-in-one home management app that connects users with assistants who help with grocery shopping, errands, house cleaning and more.
- Poppy (Washington, D.C.) A new, transparent way to buy wedding, event and gift flowers, powered by a network of floral designers working from home.
- Swivl (Denver, Colo.). A service that combines natural language processing and its no-code workflow editor to automate customers’ most repetitive and expensive processes. Its method saves time, reduces stress and transforms customer engagement.
- This App Saves Lives (Philadelphia, Pa.) A free mobile app that rewards drivers who choose not to engage in phone-based distracted driving.
- Treasure (Toronto, Canada) An educational money app for kids that teaches them to save smart and spend wisely.