Techstars Sustainability Accelerator 2019

A TECH ACCELERATOR FOR THE PLANET
We are on a mission to identify and recruit entrepreneurs with the most promising ideas for tackling the world’s food, water and climate challenges. Each year we grant up to $120k in seed funding to 10 companies selected for the cohort.  They’ll participate in an intense 3- month mentorship-driven program model where TNC, Techstars and other mentors will do all that we can to help them grow their business. On October 30th, the companies will participate in Demo Day to showcase their technologies to potential investors for subsequent funding rounds.

THE POWER OF SHARED NETWORKS
Driven by science-based optimism, the Nature Conservancy’s work spans 72 countries, 50 US States with over 400 scientists, 3600 conservationists, one million+ dedicated members and decades of work collaborating with the private sector across thousands of companies. Combine their commitment with the Techstars network of over 10,000 mentors, 1,600 portfolio companies across 16 countries and $17 billion market cap- together we’ve got a network at the ready. From mentorship with leading TNC science experts and executives to create the possibilities for pilots and partnerships to deep functional business expertise across the technology community-we know that getting the right people together at the same table is powerful in building significant value for significant ideas and teams.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR
From pre-seed to Series A, we are looking to invest in companies asking questions such as, “How might we provide food and water sustainability in a future where there are 9 billion people on earth?” “How might we use technology to tackle climate change?” “How might we build solutions to support a world where both nature and humans thrive?”These founders work across areas as broad as agriculture and soil health to fisheries, forests, aquaculture, water data and markets, climate and adaptation, carbon sequestration, green-printing cities and beyond.  The applications of technology maybe broad but the founder knows exactly why their solutions drive impact at the core of what they do. Previous Techstars companies average from pre-production to millions of $ in revenue-pre-seed to Series A or later. Below are a few of the areas that we are interested in investing in.  We realize that many founders are building ideas that have never existed before and may not fit a “list” of themes.  We welcome those conversations as well.

THEMES
Provide Food and Water Sustainably:

• Rethink agricultural practices.
• Improve fisheries health and sustainable aquaculture.
• Protect water at its source.
• Water markets.

Protect Land and Water:

• Sustainable energy development.
• Expand community-led conservation.
• Better protect land, water and oceans.

Build Healthy Cities:

• Integrate nature into urban growth planning.
• Increase climate change resilience.
• Decrease the footprint of human settlements.

Cross-Cutting Technology:

• Technologies to help support catalyzing transformational change to achieve a world where nature and people thrive.

What countries of incorporation does Techstars accept for investment?

This list is updated from time to time, but currently, we can only fund companies that have jurisdiction in the countries shown below. Companies incorporated in other countries are still encouraged to apply, as we are adding to this list all the time and we can try assist with re-incorporation in a supported jurisdiction, or we may use it as an opportunity to add support for a new jurisdiction.

Countries include: ADGM (Dubai), Australia, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mauritius, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, UK, and United States.

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