Innovation Depot’s Velocity Accelerator program has accepted seven companies into its 2022 cohort, with a high amount of local participation.
The program, which invests $50,000 into each company from the velocity fund, will launch on Jan. 24 and conclude at the end of April, with the cohort covering a wide range of sectors including health care, cryptocurrency, consumer apps and browser tech.
“Each year, the Velocity Accelerator program is one of the driving forces behind Birmingham’s growing startup ecosystem,” said Drew Honeycutt, CEO of Innovation Depot. “We look forward to providing each of these companies the capital, resources and mentorship they need to scale quickly and effectively.”
Two of the companies in the cohort were developed by founders who graduated from the Voltage program, an idea accelerator that launched in early 2021. Voltage was envisioned as a stepping stone for Velocity and other local accelerators and is designed to support entrepreneurs who have an idea for a tech or tech-aligned business as they translate that idea into a prototype.
“We’re extremely excited about the composition of this year’s cohort and the team of advisers we have slated to work with the 2022 Velocity companies,” said Kellie Clark, the accelerator's director of programs. “We’re also looking forward to fully implementing our partnership with GrowthX’s Market Acceleration Program and believe that our founders will have all of the tools necessary to achieve a year’s worth of progress in just 13 weeks.”
The velocity fund is supported by several major local corporations and entities including Regions Bank, BBVA, Blue Cross Blue Shield/The Caring Foundation, UAB, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, Encompass Health, EBSCO, Brasfield & Gorrie, McWane, Altec, Hoar Construction, Protective Life and Jefferson County.
The 2022 cohort members are as follows:
• CuddlyTails (Jersey City, New Jersey). Founders Rashi Arora and Rahul Arora. A technology platform designed to help dog owners connect with trusted and verified dog-loving neighbors.
• Datalus (Birmingham). Founder Mikhail Kozorovitskiy. A privacy-focused browser marketplace that’s backed by a crypto token.
• Fundrage (Birmingham). Founder Maria Underwood. A recently launched chrome extension that allows a user to donate to relevant nonprofit organizations while reading the news.
• ListList (Birmingham). Founders Piyanka Ghosal and Tyler Duke. ListList is an app and content aggregator that enables users to explore, share and collaborate on information organized through lists.
• Sportsy (Birmingham). Founders Stefan Vaziri and Chie Akiba. A creator-driven training program for all sports. The company partners with trainers and empowers them with tools to create and deliver training experiences at scale.
• Vizrom (Birmingham). Founder Emmanuel Umoh. An electronic whiteboard solution that can connect with a hospital electronic medical record system to pull critical information for clinical staff.
• Ziscuit (Atlanta). Founder Mark Peterson. A grocery search engine that delivers savings to shoppers and high-value traffic to retailers.
