Richmond accelerator Lighthouse Labs will kick off its new cohort this month with a diverse set of startups working in everything from health care to online dating.
The six participating companies — the accelerator’s 13th cohort to date — will go through the program virtually before visiting Richmond for two weeks starting in late October to meet with community members and take in the local startup scene.
Participating companies receive $20,000 in equity-free investment as part of the program, are paired with a mentor and will have access to an array of support services.
The new cohort includes:
- CRCL Solutions (Fairfax Station, Virginia) — This startup, founded by Thomas Sherman and Daniel Vassallo, predicts and tabulates how much wind and solar energy can be produced at an hourly time scale for the next 48 hours. Its customers include energy traders, who use the company’s data to determine their buying and selling strategies.
- Mobius Materials (Richmond) — Founded by Margaret Upshur, this startup is a business-to-business marketplace for electronic manufacturers to buy and sell excess semiconductors.
- DiaM (Plantation, Florida) — This startup offers a diabetes care platform that supports and connects people living with or helping someone with the disease. The company says its platform provides a safe, clinically moderated community space, specialized marketplace, behavior-AI personalized journey and real-time connection to medical providers. The founders are Emily Eyth and Lorenna Feliz Santos.
- Gigzilla (Harrisonburg) — This company, founded by Gabrielle Taylor and Benjamin Speaks, bills itself as a LinkedIn for workers and employers in essential industries.
- Fourplay Social (New York City) — This social network from founders Julie Griggs and Danielle Dietzek aims to make dating safer and more fun by allowing users to team up with a friend, create a shared profile and match with other groups for double dates.
- TMA Precision Health (Boston) — This personalized medicine startup from Joshua Resnikoff and Martin Grasso focuses on rare disease patients. It offers a research platform and genome sequencing services to help patients and providers better understand unique conditions and identify treatment options, including clinical trials of new cures.
Lighthouse Labs said it is looking for additional mentors to participate in the program. More information about getting involved is available here.
Longtime Richmond investor Paul Nolde stepped in this spring as the new managing director of Lighthouse Labs, replacing Erin Powell, who stepped down earlier to join Blue Ocean Brain — a provider of online professional development training that came through the accelerator program.
