Less than two weeks after getting picked for Google for Startups, a local startup is adding another nationally recognized accelerator to its resume.
Louisville-based XpressRun is one of the 12 companies selected to participate in Techstars Chicago's latest "Advancing Cities Fund." The logistics startup offers direct-to-consumer brands more affordable access to same-day delivery, while also giving brands end-to-end ownership of the delivery process.
The $80 million Advancing Cities Fund, raised through J.P. Morgan's Private Bank platform, will support more than 400 companies through accelerator programs across the U.S. with the goal of creating opportunities for a diversified range of founders, according to a report from Chicago Inno.
As I recently reported, XpressRun also just joined Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders Class of 2022. That program is 10 weeks, whereas Techstar's accelerator is three months.
Sada Wane, CEO of XpressRun, told me he and his co-founders Ahmadou "Bamba" Diop and Jordan Mariotti Wood will be in Chicago for the duration of the program. They plan to implement the feedback from Techstars and Google — as well as the company's existing customers — as it begins to scale its sales and marketing teams.
XpressRun hasn't spent any money on sales and marketing yet, Wane said, as about 70% of its existing customers have found the company via its integration with Shopify.
But now it has money to spend after recently closing its pre-seed fundraising round. Wane declined to disclose the total amount the company garnered in investments, but a couple of its local investors include Keyhorse Capital and Render Capital.
XpressRun still has an active Wefunder campaign, separate from its pre-seed round. It's raised more than $80,000 on a $4 million valuation cap through the crowdfunding effort.
The Techstars accelerator started Monday and will end with Demo Day on Dec. 8, the day the startups pitch their companies to investors, Chicago Inno reports. Typically around 1% of the companies that apply to the program are admitted.
Techstars Chicago Managing Director Neal Sales Griffin highlighted how this group of entrepreneurs is creating solutions that will address a wide range of issues ranging from accessing mental health to democratizing trading.
"[They have] an extremely deep connection to the problem they are solving. Many of the founders are 'scratching their own itch' and now working to find others that share the pain," Brad Schnitzer with Techstars told the Chicago Business Journal.
