Social enterprise, financial tech startup MARK Labs, founded in 2015 by a group of young Georgetown alums, has been selected as one of eleven companies to join the London-based, fintech-centric Barclays Accelerator program. The jointly organized training venture between the British bank and Techstars, a nationally renown tech accelerator brand, is an intensive 13-week mentorship experience where executives from early-stage tech companies receive guidance and consultancy services on how to best mold their products, services and technology.
The program ends with a massive demo day in London, where the CEO of each respective startup will pitch their company to a 700-person room full of investors, bankers, potential customers and high net-worth individuals on April 19. MARK Labs co-founder John Balkam told DC Inno that he hopes to raise a seed round of investment shortly after graduation from the accelerator.
Selection of the eleven member companies was originally announced on Monday in a press release via Techstars, but the actual curriculum will begin next week.
Entries to the Barclay-Techstars' program trade 6 percent equity in their company in return for a $20,000 investment, access to a wide network of mentors, co-working space to work from and naturally, a TechStars' designed curriculum. In addition, the aforementioned investment carries an optional $100,000 convertible note that can be activated later on.
Next week, MARK Labs will meet with 90+ mentors before being married to a smaller group that will effectively guide them towards becoming a more promising venture for investors to approach. Interestingly, Barclays will bring a number of upper-level strategists and directors to the program to act as mentors.
The inclusion of Barclays executives in the mentorship process is one aspect that Balkam said made the decision to join much easier. At the moment, the D.C.-based startup is working with Barclays to discover ways to increase the appeal of impact investing for the bank's current customer base.
For reference, impact investing is a type of investment geared towards social enterprises that create products and/or services that in turn produce a social good for the community. The investments, however, are not acts of charity but rather they are made into companies that can also provide a financial return. Hungry Harvest, for example, a Columbia-Md. food delivery startup recently covered by DC Inno is a "social enterprise" startup.
MARK Labs originally applied to the accelerator in October. After a long interview and application process they heard back in December.
The MARK Labs team is comprised of co-founders Kevin Barrow, Faraaz Farooq, John Balkam and Amal Abukar. They have been together, working on MARK Labs nonstop, for 5 months. The company has yet to sign a client. While originally a philanthropy-focused donation platform for non-profits, MARK Labs has since pivoted to become a service-oriented company that facilities impact investments between high net-worth individuals and "verified," prospective companies.
