In its first major move since becoming TechStars Chicago, the accelerator formerly known as Excelerate Labs announced the 10 startups that will be joining its summer 2013 class. They were selected from over 900 applicants spanning six continents, the most of any year.
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TechStars participants receive $18,000 in seed funding at the start of their three-month residency with the additional option of a $100,000 convertible debt note. Like all other TechStars programs, the companies participating here in Chicago will present at Demo Day, which will be held this year on August 28 at the House of Blues. It is there that they will have a chance to win funding from over 500 American investors who come to the annual event.
This year’s class roster is:
CaptureProof: This healthtech company allows patients to securely share photos and videos with their doctors.
HIPOM: This company gives parents the “Power of Off,” allowing them to remotely control Internet access in the home for each and every device.
Nexercise: Rewards, competition and alerts are delivered through this mobile app, whose creators want to make fitness fun.
Pathful: This analytics platform tracks how each visitor to a site interacts with each element he or she encounters there. This company wants to help marketers and developers understand how users see their site.
Peoplematics: Cross-application search and sharing allows users to access their data in the cloud.
Project Fixup: A “digital matchmaker” that fixes users up for face-to-face dates.
SimpleRelevance: This email marketing platform relies on analytics and is customizable for specific customers and messages.
SocialCrunch: Using behavioral data from Internet users, this company provides marketing data to unlock social insights for brands and agencies.
Sqord, Inc.: This company provides kids incentives through competition and the chance to earn points to encourage them to engage in healthy and active playtime.
TradingView: A web destination for the sharing and discussion of investing ideas for traders and others.
“This year’s application process was our most competitive yet, which is a testament to the program’s solid foundation,” said Troy Henikoff, managing director of TechStars Chicago, in a statement.. “Mentorship is at the heart of what we do, and I’m personally looking forward to working with each of these companies and watching them grow over the course of the next several months.”
Indeed, mentorship has been one of the biggest perks of joining Excelerate and the same is likely to stand true with TechStars Chicago. More than 150 mentors are available to participants, including Match.com CEO Sam Yagan (recently named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World), Grubhub cofounder Mike Evans and Foundry Group cofounder Brad Feld (who also founded TechStars).
The program kicks off May 28, when the companies take up residence in 1871.
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