Morgan Stanley Selects 8 Startups for 6th Cohort of Multicultural Innovation Lab Supporting Diverse Founders
19 Agosto 2021 - 10:30AM
Business Wire
- The Summer 2021 Multicultural Innovation Lab (MCIL) Cohort
includes the following companies that have innovative strategies
across sectors such as fintech, healthcare, media, marketplace,
retail tech and enterprise software: Cognicor, Fyt Personal
Training, Lifesaver, MedTrans Go, Playlister Club, Productions.com,
Sozie and Stimulus
- MCIL portfolio companies reach a $450M+ combined valuation and
have raised $80M+ in additional funding to date after participating
in the Lab
Morgan Stanley today announced the sixth cohort of the
Multicultural Innovation Lab, an accelerator program for technology
and technology-enabled startups in the post‐seed to Series B
funding rounds. The program, now in its fifth year and with 51
total participating companies to date, targets startups with a
multicultural or woman founder, co‐founder, CTO or other C-suite
member that is developing innovative solutions across sectors.
Through the Lab, Morgan Stanley makes investments in these early
stage, high-growth companies and will support each founder’s growth
and development through its ecosystem of internal and external
partners.
“Welcoming another cohort to our growing portfolio of companies
is another step forward in the effort to close the funding gap for
diverse founders that exists in the marketplace today,” said Carla
Harris, Vice Chairman of Morgan Stanley and Co-Head of the
Multicultural Client Strategy Group. “I am excited to hit the
ground running to work with these talented founders, having
witnessed first-hand the tremendous success of the program in
bringing these businesses to scale.”
The companies participating in the program began on August 16
and are operating in a hybrid environment, using online video
platforms to facilitate the Lab curriculum and convening in-person
to foster community. The entrepreneurs receive support from a
dedicated Morgan Stanley team delivering tailored experiences to
help each company grow. The program will run through January 2022,
culminating in the sixth Multicultural Innovation Lab Showcase and
Demo Day that will present the companies to potential
investors.
The Lab has had four successful years with six cohorts and
continues to expand in the fifth year with the goal of increasing
access to capital for diverse entrepreneurs, which has proven
successful as evidenced by resulting company acquisitions and
additional funding rounds following participation in the program.
Some notable examples include:
- AptDeco, a peer to peer marketplace for buying and selling
furniture, has expanded to two additional geographical markets and
secured partnerships with brands such as West Elm and Pottery
Barn.
- Virtual-reality-based (VR) diversity and inclusion platform,
Praxis Labs raised $3.2 million in seed funding earlier this year,
making founder Elise Smith one of 93 Black women to raise more than
$1 million for a venture-backed business as of 2020.
- With the support of the MCIL team, BaseCap Analytics, an
AI-enabled software company that empowers organizations to
efficiently improve their data quality, grew their team by 25
percent, increased their product (vs. service) client threefold,
and raised a series seed round.
“We look forward to welcoming our next cohort of founders to
provide the tools, resources and connections they need to grow and
scale their sector-disrupting businesses,” said Alice Vilma,
Managing Director and Co-Head of the Multicultural Innovation Lab.
“Highlighting these great companies with diverse founders and
leveraging our expansive and global networks and resources will
hopefully widen their universe and attract the capital needed to
scale”
The companies that have been selected for the Summer 2021 cohort
include the following:
- Cognicor is an AI-powered digital assistant platform for
the financial industry, automating and augmenting the efficiency of
advisors and support teams of IBDs, Wirehouses, RIAs and insurance
firms, enabling scalable operations and accelerating growth.
- Fyt Personal Training is an online platform that
connects consumers who need help achieving their goals with the
country's largest network of certified fitness professionals
- Lifesaver is a fintech company that provides a universal
mobile banking application for financial institutions that lack
cutting-edge digital solutions.
- MedTrans Go is a tech-enabled patient optimization
platform that aims to reduce medical appointment cancellations by
providing patients access to medical transportation, interpretation
services, Rx delivery and telemedicine services.
- Playlister Club is a music discovery platform that
provides artists and labels with access to a community of
“playlisters” (creators of music playlists) seeking to discover new
songs and artists.
- Productions.com is an online marketplace that connects
pre-vetted production industry talent to employers in the
entertainment and media industry.
- Sozie is a leading on-demand user-generated content
(UGC) platform for brands and retailers to engage their employee
and shopper communities to create rich product content.
- Stimulus is a relationship intelligence SaaS platform
that uses data and analytics to simplify how companies make
purchasing decisions by offering vendor search, evaluation,
selection and management tools.
The Lab has launched a series of MCIL portfolio company profiles
in partnership with The Plug to raise their visibility and drive
attention to the market inefficiency when it comes to funding women
and multicultural founders.
About the Multicultural Innovation Lab
The Multicultural Innovation Lab (MCIL) is an intensive
five-month accelerator designed to help further develop and scale
startups, culminating in a Demo Day and showcase presentation to
the investor community. Morgan Stanley launched the MCIL in 2017 in
order to address inequities in funding of multicultural and
women-led startups, which our research shows equals over four
trillion dollars in unrealized returns. The team is led by Morgan
Stanley Vice Chairman and Managing Director Carla Harris and
Managing Director Alice Vilma. Together, they have had over 50
years of equity syndicate, investment banking, capital markets and
structured finance experience. The Multicultural Innovation Lab,
part of our Multicultural Client Strategy Group, was launched to
promote financial inclusion and decrease the funding gap for
diverse entrepreneurs.
Listen to the Access & Opportunity with Carla Harris podcast
on your platform of choice to learn about the players driving
change among diverse entrepreneurs, the Investor community, and the
world.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) 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
https://www.morganstanley.com/.
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Media Relations: Katherine Stueber,
katherine.stueber@morganstanley.com
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