Techstars Retail, a startup accelerator run in partnership with Target, kicked off its second class Monday, and for the first time, two of the participating companies are from the Twin Cities.
Upsie, based in Minneapolis, offers an app that allows customers to buy, compare and track warranty plans. Local Crate is a meal-kit subscription service that features ingredients sourced in and around the Twin Cities.
The two companies are joined by eight other startups hailing from Ohio, New York, Silicon Valley, India and Belgium. Over the next three months, each company will receive training, mentorship and $120,000 in startup capital to advance their business.
Participants are required to relocate to the Twin Cities for the duration of the program, and are connected to 150 Techstars mentors, many of whom are members of the local business community or founders themselves.
Techstars Retail director Ryan Broshar said that this year's 10 startups were selected from an applicant pool of more than 3,000.
"It was a long recruiting process, but we came out with the best of the best," Broshar said.
Techstars was founded in Boulder, Colorado more than a decade ago, and now has 30 programs across the country and throughout the world. The Minneapolis retail program ran its first accelerator last year.
The startups that went through the accelerator last year went on to collectively raise more than $32 million post-program, a record fundraising for a first-year Techstars program, according to Broshar. Although there weren't any Minnesota companies that went through last year's accelerator, two of the startups, Branch Messenger (originally based in California) and Inspectorio (from Ecuador), relocated to the Twin Cities after participating in Techstars.
Broshar said he looks forward to building relationships with the founders and showing them what the Twin Cities has to offer.
"The vast majority of [founders] from last year hadn't been here ever before," he said. "But after their first taste I think everyone left with a glowing impression of what's going on in the Twin Cities, and I'm excited to do that again."
Techstars plans to host a demo day at First Avenue on October 11 as part of Twin Cities Startup Week.
Without further ado, here are the eight non-local companies participating in this year's Techstars Retail accelerator:
- Air Tailor (New York): An on-demand clothing alteration and repair platform. Users text their alteration instructions to Air Tailor, then drop their clothes in the mail.
- Bybe Inc. (Columbus, Ohio): A mobile platform for retailers to manage alcohol promotions.
- Kokko (Los Altos, California): A beauty biz that helps users find the perfect shade of foundation for their skin tone via mobile app.
- Savitude (Palo Alto, California): An app that helps users find the best clothes for their body type using artificial intelligence. Picture Cher's closet from Clueless, but very real and with no 90's plaid.
- Shopturn (New York): Customers can use the app to return purchased items without having to visit a retailer's brick-and-mortar store.
- SpotCrowd (Belgium): A startup using facial-recognition software that can be used, among other things, to track and prevent shoplifting.
- StoryXpress (India): A platform that helps advertisers rapidly create video promotions.
- Find Me a Shoe (West Sacramento, California): A mobile app that, you guessed it, helps you find shoes. The Sacramento-based startup offers a footwear recommendation app to to virtually assist users with finding the best size and style.
