New Lighthouse Labs cohort includes two Richmond startups — including an Indian potato chip maker

Eight companies have been invited to participate in the fall cohort of the Lighthouse Labs accelerator program, including two from Richmond.

The local participants include Sherah, a company that offers personal assistant services to families, and Keya & Co., a snack food company that uses the unique flavor profiles of India.

“It feels surreal, because I came from corporate America and never thought in a million years I would be doing something like this,” said Sherah founder Kristin Richardson.

The cohort is the 15th for Richmond-based Lighthouse Labs. In total, more than 100 companies have gone through the accelerator, which matches founders with mentors and takes the entrepreneurs through a structured curriculum. Each company is given $20,000 in equity-free financing. The goal is to help the young companies better understand product-market fit and the learn the best ways to market themselves.

Sherah grew out of Richardson’s need for help as a young mother. Her company hires assistants who help families with tasks both virtually and in-person.

The other Richmond company, Keya & Co., is a bit of a shift for Lighthouse Labs. The company is a consumer packaged goods company. While Absurd Snacks has been through Lighthouse Labs, the organization has generally focused on high-growth technology companies.

Keya & Co. founder Keya Wingfield was born in India. She met her husband there, and they moved to Richmond nearly 20 years ago. She learned the culinary field and became a baker, selling desserts and other pastries to weddings and corporate events. When the pandemic hit, she pivoted to selling to-go Indian meals. She began putting an Indian-style potato chip into some of the orders as a thank you and thought nothing of it.

“A week later somebody ordered just the chips,” Wingfield said. “I was so confused, and it dawned on me that they wanted the little samples.”

That has grown into a business, as Wingfield has been making and selling Bombay Chips around Richmond. She produces the chips in a local kitchen but wants to hire a manufacturing company and find a distributor. She is hoping Lighthouse Labs can help her move the company forward.

“We have purposefully not taken on more vendors because we cannot keep up with production,” Wingfield said. “This is where Lighthouse comes in. We are at a point where we are going to get a co-packer and we are getting the spices directly from India. I need help. I am looking for mentorship on how to scale a [consumer packaged goods] company.”

The addition of Richardson and Wingfield represents a concerted effort by Lighthouse Labs to diversify its participants. Less than 10% of venture capital is given to women and people of color. Lighthouse Labs has reached out to nonstartup communities over the last year and wants to add other nontraditional founders, including those who are veterans and disabled. The organization believes that a diverse set of viewpoints helps the cohort, and 63% of its latest cohort represents those groups, according to Lighthouse Labs officials.

“I am an immigrant,” Wingfield said. “I don’t have those college buddies or people who can help me out. I have had to dig my way in and make my own spot.”

The founders in the cohort will come to Richmond in late August, where they will begin the accelerator program. The cohort will meet virtually over several months and then return to Richmond in November for a Demo Day pitch competition.

The rest of the cohort includes: