Roux picks next startups for Techstars accelerator
File photo / Renee Cordes
Nine companies will form the second cohort of the Roux Techstars Accelerator in Portland, a three-month program set to start next week and wrap up with a Demo Day on Dec. 15. Last year's event is shown here.
Portland-based software developer Torque and eight other startups will spend the next three months taking their business to the next level via the Roux Institute Techstars Accelerator program.
The 13-week program, based at Northeastern University's Roux institute in Portland, is a collaboration between the institute and Techstars, a Boulder, Colo.-based operator of more than 40 startup accelerators worldwide.
The institute was launched in 2019 to transform Maine's largest city into a regional innovation hub focused on technology and life sciences and hosted the first Techstars accelerator cohort in 2021. This year's program is scheduled to start Monday, Sept. 19, and run through mid-December.
Participants will work out of the Roux campus on Portland's East End and tap into Techstars’ mentor network, as well as faculty, researchers and mentors from the institute and Northeastern University’s global network.
Lars Perkins, managing director of the Roux Techstars Accelerator, praised the incoming group as exceptional and diverse, adding, "We look forward to helping them hone their operations and plugging the to Techstars' worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed by opening doors and scaling rapidly.:
As was the case last year, the program will wrap up with a Demo Day pitch event, scheduled for Dec. 15.
This year's class includes a CICLA, a Chilean developer and maker of advanced composites materials for 3D printers, and Points, a Providence, R.I.-based app app that crowdsources safer bicycle and scooter routes. (See full cohort list below.)
"The biggest change for this cohort is we really strived to recruit companies that align with the Roux Institute's core focus areas of advanced manufacturing, AI [artificial intelligence], visualization and health care," Ben Chesler, director of venture creation and acceleration at the Roux institute, told Mainebiz. "You'll see that reflected in the companies we attracted and reflected."
Leslie Hyman, co-founder and CEO of Circa, a financial technology provider that aims to "reinvent" how rent is paid, participated last year, after which she relocated her company from Connecticut to Maine.
Her advice to the incoming class: "Be present and soak up every drop."
Updated 2022 cohort list
Here's the full list of 2022 Roux Techstars Accelerator participants:
- ByDesign, Boston
- CICLA, Concepción, Chile
- hey freya, Cumberland
- Cypress Health, Los Angeles
- HotDrop, Newton, Mass.
- Pointz, Providence, R.I.
- ReVert Technologies, New York City
- The PS Collective, Brooklyn, N.Y.
- Torque, Portland
- Virtual Sapiens, Boston
Editor's note: hey freya was added to the cohort after the original story was published.
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