Morgan Stanley Selects 10 Startup Companies for 3rd Cohort of Innovation Lab Targeting Multicultural and Women Founders
April 29 2019 - 10:30AM
Business Wire
- Selected from over 300 applicants
globally, the 2019 cohort startups include BLUEWAVE Technologies,
Care Advisors, Cosynd, Five to Nine, Gappify, Looklive, Mighty
Well, ShopJenzy, SmartGurlz and Taina Technology – companies with
innovative strategies across the health, software development,
legal, medical hardware, HR, fintech, fashion and education
sectors
- Morgan Stanley will once again take
equity positions and use its global reach, content and connections
to spur growth and address the funding gap for multicultural /
women startup founders
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) today announced the third cohort of
the Multicultural Innovation Lab, an accelerator program for
technology and technology-enabled start-ups in the post‐seed to
Series B funding rounds. The program, now in its third year,
targets companies with a multicultural or woman founder,
co‐founder, CTO or other C-suite member that is developing
innovative solutions across sectors. Following two successful years
that resulted in company acquisitions and additional funding
rounds, the Lab will make investments in these early stage high
growth companies and will support the founders’ growth and
development through its ecosystem of internal and external
partners.
“This program has seen tremendous success over the past two
years, and I am looking forward to helping this next group of
founders accelerate their businesses and make signficiant strides
in executing their strategies,” said Carla Harris, Vice Chairman of
Morgan Stanley and Head of the Multicultural Client Strategy Group.
“The Lab’s goal is to provide these founders with additional
contributions toward their future success by leveraging our
expansive and global networks, resources and expertise that will
hopefully attract the capital needed to scale.”
The Lab is designed to help drive positive economic outcomes for
entrepreneurs of color and women by providing content, visibility,
technical support and connectivity with important stakeholders who
might be essential in accelerating the growth of their businesses,
as well as access to an ecosystem of best in class global partners
providing a variety of resources.
The companies, selected out of over 300 applications submitted,
will be fully immersed in the program working from Morgan Stanley’s
global headquarters in Times Square, New York, and receive support
from a dedicated team creating tailored experiences to help each
company grow. The six month program will begin in April and run
through the fall, culminating in the third Multicultural Innovation
Lab Showcase and Demo Day that will expose companies to potential
investors through showcase format presentations.
Understanding that access to capital alone isn’t sufficient, the
Lab brings in best-in-class content and connectivity for the
entrepreneurs. William Crowder, formerly head of Comcast Ventures’
Catalyst Fund and now Founding Partner at 42 Venture Partners, will
be returning as its Entrepreneur-In-Residence. Crowder will serve
as a strategic advisor to both the entrepreneurs and the
Multicultural Client Strategy team throughout the duration of the
Lab to help participating companies address and conquer challenges
that will increase performance and progress. Additionally, with
input from other partners such as Wilson Sonsini Goodrich &
Rosati, entrepreneurs in the Lab will have unparalleled access to
subject matter experts, practitioners and investors all committed
to their success.
“There is a compelling business case for investing in startups
led by women and multicultural founders, yet, as found in our
recent report, there is a large market inefficiency to accelerate
businesses led by these founders,” said Alice Vilma, Co-Head of the
Multicultural Innovation Lab. “We are working to directly address
this funding gap, one cohort at a time.”
The companies that have been selected for the 2019 cohort
are:
- BLUEWAVE Technologies is a
health tech company that makes a device used to quickly sanitize
and deodorize health care items, such as orthotic and prosthetic
devices without using water, detergents or manufactured chemicals,
providing broad implications for healthcare settings
- Care Advisors is a Medicaid
enrollment software for hospitals and insurance companies that
reduces the barriers and time it takes to enroll in Medicaid,
benefitting both patients and medical providers
- Cosynd provides an affordable
and legal toolkit for individual content creators and businesses to
generate simple legal agreements and copyright registrations with
others faster than before
- Five to Nine is a platform that
empowers HR teams to improve workplace connectivity and promote
inclusion, as well as effectively manage and measure real-time
feedback from employees on culture building opportunities
- Gappify is a cloud-based bot
platform intended to equip corporate accountants with the solutions
needed to automate repetitive, time consuming and error prone
tasks
- Looklive provides pictures of
the latest celebrity fashion which is shoppable through their
website, and also collaborates with influencers to develop
monetization strategies for their personal brands, via partnerships
with retailers
- Mighty Well creates medical
wearables to cover, protect and stylize medical devices, such as
chest ports, feeding tubes, PICC lines and diabetic pumps
- ShopJenzy is an e-commerce
platform powered by innovative sizing technology that makes it easy
for parents to buy the right size shoes for young kids online
- SmartGurlz is an education
platform that teaches girls to code through play. Their flagship
product is a robot that young girls learn to code and control
through an educational app
- TAINA Technology provides
regulatory technology that leverages computer science to empower
financial institutions to automate FATCA and CRS compliance saving
them money and reducing risks
Read more about Morgan Stanley’s recent report, “The Growing
Markest Investors Are Missing,” here. Learn more about the Morgan
Stanley Multicultural Innovation Lab here.
Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm
providing investment banking, securities, wealth management and
investment management services. With offices in more than 41
countries, the Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including
corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For more
information about Morgan Stanley, please visit
www.morganstanley.com.
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Katherine Stueber, 212.761-1349
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)
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