D.C. carpooling startup Go Together Inc. has secured one of 10 spots in a national accelerator.
The company, run by co-founder and CEO Kimberly Moore, will participate in Wisconsin-based gener8tor’s gBeta Social Impact accelerator, a free seven-week intensive program that helps social entrepreneurs refine their business models.
For Go Together and its CarpooltoSchool service, it “opens doors to new school customers, a new investor community and deeper dive in customer discovery that unlocks and scales CarpooltoSchool for school districts,” Moore said in an email Friday.
It comes as the District-based business redoubles fundraising efforts to stretch its software-as-a-service mobility platform to more school districts nationwide. That includes a $2 million seed round Moore plans to open in the first quarter of 2021, that would give the company about 18 months of runway to add employees, deploy the next generation of its tech and expand marketing efforts. It comes amid a tough pandemic period and a challenging road for Moore, a Black female entrepreneur operating in an environment inherently difficult for women founders and those of color.
“What I realized pretty quickly is … if you are not in the ecosystem of people who have the capital and have the ability to build those relationships, it’s going to be hard,” Moore told us earlier this year. “And it has been hard.”
The virtual program, run alongside sponsor American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact, has tapped nine other ventures across the U.S. tackling economic equality, education and other social issues.
Here they are:
- Vonzella (Minneapolis) sells bail insurance so individuals can secure bail and avoid the prisons of inequity caused by the cash bail crisis.
- The Way Out (Milwaukee) connects employers with qualified justice-involved job seekers through its anti-bias employment platform and self-learning mobile application.
- JusticeText (Chicago), an audiovisual evidence management platform, promotes police accountability by expediting the review of body camera footage, interrogation videos, jail calls and more.
- MoneyVerbs (Minneapolis), a financial wellness app, creates a space where money doesn’t have to be taboo.
- Activism Always (Bay Area, California) platform produces data-driven research and analysis to support social engagement and the goals of mission-driven organizations.
- Beereaders (Austin, Texas) redefines possibilities for Spanish-speaking K-12 students by advancing their reading comprehension skills.
- Boddle Learning (Tulsa, Oklahoma) helps teachers and education publishers transform learning content into interactive experiences through a gamified education platform.
- Mathematician, Jr. (Atlanta) accelerates foundational math skills in children aged 3-6 to help foster confidence, early math mastery and a positive relationship with math.
- STRUT Learning (Chicago) helps students improve their emotional intelligence abilities, including self-awareness, empathy and leadership.
Gener8tor first launched its Social Impact program in Madison in 2018. It has also held several gALPHA Social Impact programs, which are shorter four-week programs designed for earlier-stage ventures.
