I’m thrilled to announce Techstars Class 131 – the ten amazing companies participating in the very first Techstars Accelerator being run in partnership with industry leader Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK). The Stanley+Techstars Additive Manufacturing Accelerator begins today and culminates in an October 11th Demo Day at the Bushnell Theater here in Hartford, CT.
We selected companies from a pool of applications that came from 11 countries, with 50% from outside of the United States, and approximately 20% from the NE North Americas region. Our focus was on finding founding teams with the best mix of passion, talent, and drive, as well as the capacity for technical innovation within additive manufacturing. In the past 6 months, I’ve viewed countless applications from hardware, software and materials focused companies, traveled around the world and have been honored by the opportunity to meet with numerous, extremely talented, high-potential founding teams. Working to narrow down to the ten companies we thought would most benefit from the accelerator was not an easy task, and so I’m incredibly excited to reveal that the companies we selected are from Ireland, Israel, Canada and the US.
This program is my first as Managing Director, the first for the city of Hartford, the first for Stanley Black & Decker, and the first in the additive manufacturing vertical for Techstars. I’m already delighted by the fast-growing and supportive mentor community here in Hartford, and am proud of the strength of the companies and the diversity of their offerings and teams.
I am confident that this is going to be an amazing year for the companies, for the city of Hartford, for Stanley Black & Decker, and for Techstars!
Without further ado, here are the 2018 Stanley+Techstars Additive Manufacturing Accelerator companies in random order: