Techstars, the Boulder-based accelerator and mentorship network, announced today that is has raised $42 million in a move that will help the company scale its global footprint.
The round was led by SVB Financial Group, the holding company of Silicon Valley Bank, with additional participation from existing investors including Foundry Group.
The company said in a release that the funding will accelerate its growth through seed-stage accelerators, global startup ecosystem activations, corporate innovation and entrepreneur-focused events.
Techstars' investment activity now includes 49 accelerator programs in 35 cities across 16 countries, deploying $80 million into nearly 500 startups on an annual basis.
In July alone Techstars has announced new accelerator programs in Italy, South Korea, Australia and the UAE.
The company's portfolio of 1,900 companies currently attracts an annual $2 billion in investment from the venture capital industry. Techstars also operates approximately 1,000 annual Techstars Startup Weekend events in 600 cities across 120 countries.
Notable graduate companies include Boulder-based Sphero, New York-based Classpass and Cambridge-based PillPack, which was purchased by Amazon in 2018 for $753 million.
"Being the largest and most active global seed investor requires a mindset and approach that is completely distinct from traditional venture capital," said Techstars Co-CEO David Cohen in a release. "Techstars has created and is scaling an entirely new type of early-stage private equity asset."
In addition to the financing, John China, President of SVB Capital, has joined Techstars' Board of Directors.
"The Techstars team is well-positioned to keep developing its platform and enable and support founders, investors and startup ecosystems around the globe," China said in a statement. "SVB has a long history working with Techstars and its portfolio companies and we're enthusiastic about the opportunity to further our relationship and make a bigger positive impact on the innovation economy."
This is a developing story, check back on Colorado Inno for more.
