The second cohort of companies poised to go through the Growth Factory’s funded accelerator program includes a mix of startups that have products now on the market and some that are years away from it.
Entrepreneur Mark Haney, who heads the accelerator and related venture fund that launched last year, welcomed the 13 companies Wednesday at an event at the Growth Factory headquarters in Rocklin.
Haney said the first cohort was “off-the-charts great founders,” and he said this second cohort is equally impressive.
Like the first cohort of 15 companies, this group is a mix of startups in different stages. Some have revenue, and some are perhaps a year or more from revenue. Some have raised little money, and some have raised a lot. Azra Games, part of the second cohort, last month raised $15 million in a round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Tim Keller, the chief operating officer of Davis-based medical device startup AmCyt, said the Growth Factory offers many benefits to startups, from coaching and networking to the investment money and status. In addition to working with AmCyt, a member of the second cohort, Keller is founder of Inventopia, a Davis coworking space, makerspace and prototyping workshop. He is also a mentor to the Growth Factory.
The Growth Factory plans to invest $10 million into 100 local companies over four years.
The 2022 summer cohort includes:
- AmCyt, which makes a medical device that speeds biopsy pathology and makes it cheaper.
- Athlyt Inc., which connects student athletes with businesses that want to pay to use their names and images.
- Azra Games, which is a studio developing blockchain role-playing games where the user can own their character and other collectables.
- Bekonix Inc., which is a no-code platform to easily create connected Internet-of-Things products.
- Core Impact Inc., which makes Internet-of-Things sports apparel that tracks muscle activity in real time.
- EyeRate, which is a customer communication platform that pays employees who receive positive online feedback.
- HyGenius Inc., which improves hand hygiene with instant feedback to prevent the spread of infection.
- Modern Football Technology, which provides analytics to help improve game outcomes using actionable data.
- Neural Lab Inc., which makes touchless hand gestures work as a mouse or controller for any device.
- Restron, which makes a suite of restaurant apps to drive customer engagement.
- Shared Vision, which is software platform that unifies content for creators, online brands and consumers.
- TriVirum Inc., which is developing signal-processing technology for medical devices.
- Yubbler, a platform that connects parents with access to school supplies for their kids’ school and gives schools 50% of the profit.
The Growth Factory makes early-stage and seed investments into companies ranging from $25,000 to $50,000, with additional money held in reserve for future investments.
The fund is backed by 95 local investors, and it's still seeking four more. It chose 99 because that is the maximum number of investors allowed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a limited partnership. All investors must be accredited investors, which means they have ongoing annual income of more than $200,000 for more than two years, or a net worth of $1 million or more, not including the value of a residence.
