Announcing the Techstars Detroit Powered by J.P. Morgan Spring Class of 2023
Apr 04, 2023
DETROIT (April 3, 2023) – Techstars Detroit Powered by J.P. Morgan is proud to announce the Spring Class of 2023! These promising, early-stage companies are addressing challenges in categories such as AI, Fintech, Beauty, PropTech, HealthTech, and the Future of Work.
The process is highly competitive with an open application of hundreds of companies. After the initial application, founders go through rigorous screening, several rounds of interviews, selection, and diligence. These twelve companies stood out among their peers for their extraordinary ability to execute quickly, undeniable grit, deep empathy for their customers, and much more. Each of these companies embody the famous Detroit maxim that “Nothing Stops Detroit.”
While this program and investment is open to founders of all backgrounds, we focus our recruiting to founders who are from diverse backgrounds: Black, Hispanic and Latino, Indigenous American, and/or Pacific Islander. We deeply believe that talent is everywhere but opportunity is not. Our investment thesis is split between emerging markets and underrepresented (read “underestimated”) founders bridged by venture ecosystem partnerships.
Our team has over 100 collective years building relationships with startup ecosystems across the US and the world. This direct effort yields a unique skillset of identifying talent and results in seeing a high yield of high-performing founders from growing geographic regions and diverse backgrounds. Even more, this ecosystem approach gives our founders an added edge in fundraising, mentorship, business development, talent acquisition, and more.
We are so excited to get to work with this this class for the next 13 weeks and invite you work alongside us as well! If you’re an investor, please email monica.wheat@techstars.com. If you’re an ecosystem leader or interested in mentoring the companies, please email yvenique.lovinsky@techstars.com. If you’re a founder interested in our program, please email chacho.valadez@techstars.com. Applications for the Fall 2023 class open on Apr 10.
We want to extend our gratitude to our corporate partner, J.P. Morgan, and their commitment to supporting inclusive accelerators that create opportunities for diverse, early-stage founders.
Cheers to the 12 companies!
Detroit, MI
Cashpool is recreating the hedge fund experience for retail investors by combining copy trading and community in the stock market and crypto.
Detroit, MI
Crediometer provides a secure and easy-to-use payment solution for growing business owners of all shapes and sizes.
Detroit, MI
Fitmania is building the future of fitness where users can connect, create, and monetize on our platform.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Glou is an AI-driven C2C re-commerce marketplace powering the circular economy for beauty products.
Brooklyn, NY
Homeflow provides a digital collaborative platform for residential real estate transactions that give education, unbiased advice, user-friendly tools, and access to the top real estate professionals.
Detroit, MI
Inpathy recreates the human experience on social tech, using empathy better to serve people's well-being and digital identity formation.
New York, NY
Kredete is a digital lending platform that provides free credit scores and reports to underserved individuals and small businesses in Africa to help them gain access to formal credit and improve their financial health.
Lagos, Nigeria
Luca offers simple finance tools for small African-based businesses.
Ann Arbor, MI
MeetYourClass is creating the most extensive network of college students to alleviate the struggles of finding friends and roommates before arriving on campus.
Mumbai, India
Saral is a one-stop B2B platform for women homepreneurs to sell their products from the comfort of their homes.
Superpowers Incorporated (Formally Unicorn Dream)
Detroit, MI
Superpowers automates early-stage startup investment opportunity suggestions replicating investment decision-making to increase investor confidence, efficiency, and accuracy.
London, United Kingdom
Waggle is an AI sidekick that helps managers know exactly what to do and when to drive their team to perform.
About the Author
Monica Wheat
Monica Wheat is a 20-year veteran of startup, corporate, and tech organizations and is the Managing Director of the Techstars Equitech Accelerator. She is the cofounder and executive director of Venture Catalysts, an ecosystem development group. Previously, Monica helped build global accelerator programs as MD with Backstage Capital, an underestimated founder focused-venture fund, and venture programs globally in partnership with Google, Microsoft, Ford, GM, and Quicken Loans.
Chacho Valadez
Chacho is an Investment Associate at Techstars Detroit where he leads sourcing and selecting of companies. He provides valuable support to founders throughout the program and beyond by assisting them with fundraising efforts. Chacho is often found working closely with founders, diving into various aspects of their businesses, ranging from team building and storytelling to product feedback.
