Disney’s Startup Accelerator Enters Its Sophomore Year With A New Batch Of Companies
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Disney just announced the second batch of companies that will participate in the Disney Accelerator. The program will again be a three-month mentorship period powered by Techstars, and each company will receive up to $120,000 in investment capital.
While some of us doubt the benefits of a corporate accelerator, companies from the first batch have reached some impressive milestones, with all of them either having raised capital, been acquired, or become profitable.
Some highlights from last year’s batch include SnowShoe, a company that lets plastic pieces interact with your digital devices. The company has raised $3.5 million in seed funding from Lowercase Capital, Foundry Group’s AngelList syndicate, and more.
Another 2014 accelerator member is Naritiv, a marketing platform for Snapchat, which recently announce that its Pretty Little Liars campaign has amassed more than 1.3 million snapchat followers.
The companies selected for the 2015 Disney Accelerator program include:
- Decisive: Decisive is a SaaS platform that lets advertisers optimize mobile ad campaigns based on user engagement.
- EMOTIV: EMOTIV makes a device to track mental performance, monitor emotions, and control virtual and physical objects with thoughts.
- FEM Inc.: FEM Inc. is a platform that recommends and delivers video content to any website or app.
- HYP3R: HYP3R lets businesses identify influential customers and engage them in real time.
- imperson: imperson provides an artificial intelligence platform that lets fans have conversations with their favorite movie and TV characters.
- Littlstar: Littlstar aggregates the best virtual reality content from across the web.
- MakieLab: MakieLab lets kids create custom 3D-printed dolls with personalized attributes.
- Open Bionics: Open Bionics is a company creating low cost 3D-printed bionic hands for amputees.
- Pundit: Pundit lets anyone host audio Ask Me Anything (AMAs) within their Twitter network.
- StatMuse: StatMuse lets sports fans explore sports statistics and data using natural language queries.
Starting today, the companies will work under the support of Disney executives and leaders across Disney’s other media properties. The program will conclude with a Demo Day in Los Angeles on October 6th, where all companies will present to investors.
Disclosure: Author owns a small amount of shares in Disney by way of a family trust.
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