Wisconsin-based startup accelerator gener8tor is heading north with a new program set to launch next year in Toronto.
Gener8tor announced that it is opening a gBeta program in Toronto starting in the spring. Gener8tor's gBeta programs are free, 7-week accelerators for local startups. It has similar programs in Milwaukee, Madison, Beloit, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Detroit. Gener8tor does not take equity from companies in its gBeta cohort.
The Toronto program marks gener8tor's first expansion outside of the U.S. It also recently brought a music tech program to Los Angeles and launched a Milwaukee-based artist accelerator called Fellowship.art.
Through gene8tor's traditional startup accelerator program, it has invested in five Canadian startups: AirShare, RawOffice, Fertilify, Routeique and Needls. Abby Taubner, the managing director of gener8tor's gBeta program, said the accelerator was eager to get even more connected with Toronto's startup ecosystem.
"The way it's been put to us from a lot of different people is that [Toronto] looks like what Silicon Valley looked like when it was emerging," she said. "We wanted to play a role in that."
Gener8tor expects to select five companies for its first gBeta Toronto cohort in the spring, and will follow with a second cohort in the fall. The news of gener8tor's Toronto expansion was first reported by BizTimes.
As gener8tor continues to grow, it was once again recognized among the top startup accelerators in the U.S. In October, gener8tor received a “Gold” ranking from the Seed Accelerator Rankings Project, putting it among the top 16 accelerators in the country and in the same tier as well-known accelerators like MassChallenge and 500 Startups. It was the third year in a row that gener8tor received the honor.
