Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator is thrilled to announce the eight innovative startups that have been selected to join the program’s sixth cohort, focusing on addressing the challenges of the modern dynamic labor market through cutting-edge technologies. 

The selected startups are tackling complex workforce needs ranging from accessible career pathways to upskilling solutions to education navigation and financial support services. 

“At the Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator, we invest in founders reimagining how people work, learn, and advance in today’s economy. This year’s eight companies rose above hundreds of applicants by combining bold ideas and lived experience with real-world execution on urgent workforce challenges. Each founder brings a unique lens, and I’m excited to partner with them on what’s ahead.” - Dave Cass, Managing Director 

The 2026 Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator Class

The 2026 class begins March 9 and will be run in partnership with the Strada Education Foundation and World Education Services (WES), which bring deep expertise in career and education alongside valuable mentorship capabilities.

• AskSAMIE (Kansas City, MO): AskSAMIE helps older adults and people with disabilities live safely at home by getting them on demand access to occupational therapy, adaptive equipment and resources needed to make life easier. The dual-sided platform supports the work of OTs and the needs of caregivers, enabling scalable care delivery and better support at home.

• Essential Innovations (Louisville, KY): Essential Innovations helps small and medium-sized employers with high-turnover frontline positions unlock tens of billions of dollars in available tax credits and workforce incentives. The platform simplifies access to programs such as the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) and other hiring subsidies, enabling employers to find, hire, train, and retain workers from traditionally underutilized talent pools.

• Gild (New York, NY): Gild is an AI-native workforce operating system built for the trades. The platform matches and deploys skilled trade workers to enterprise-scale infrastructure and specialty contractors, helping companies with distributed field workforces manage labor more efficiently.

• Hive Ownership (Brooklyn, NY): Hive Ownership helps small businesses build a real ownership culture. By designing profit-sharing and equity participation structures that align employee and owner incentives, Hive transforms frontline workers into engaged stakeholders invested in business success, reducing turnover and increasing productivity in the process.

• Obert (Los Angeles, CA): Obert is a workwear brand designed specifically for women in male-dominated industries. The brand addresses the longstanding gap in professional safety gear built for women's bodies and safety needs, offering protective workwear across both direct-to-consumer and B2B channels.

• Peak Mojo (San Francisco, CA): Peak Mojo is building the operating system for the future caregiving workforce — where care is delivered by humans, AI, and robotics. We enable human-AI collaboration for quality care delivery through AI simulations that train and assess caregivers.

• Sumly (New York, NY): Sumly is an AI-powered tax and finance platform for solopreneurs and small business owners. The platform tracks income and expenses year-round, surfaces every available deduction, and connects users with Tax Pros to file, helping the self-employed keep more of what they earn without the overhead of traditional accounting software or bookkeepers.

• Utiva (New York, NY): Utiva makes global hiring and expansion as seamless as hiring locally. We are the end-to-end operating system for global workforce expansion — combining hiring, compliance, and payroll into one intelligent platform that lets mid-size and growth-stage companies access vetted talent across emerging markets in days, not months. 

Over the next three months, these startups will receive:

• Seed investment

• Mentorship through Techstars’ worldwide network of business leaders, including Denver’s business community

• Business coaching through the program’s educational components

The program has a proven track record of success, with the first five cohorts producing 55 companies that have collectively raised over $75M. 

About Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator

The Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator focuses on investing in startups addressing the challenges of the modern, dynamic labor market through innovative technologies. The program provides selected companies with the support, mentorship, and resources needed to scale their vision and impact.

The Workforce team is led by Dave Cass (Managing Director) and Sasha Green (Program Manager), working closely with Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Alison Griffin and Program Operations Associate, Shannon Plumb.

For more information, visit the Workforce Development Accelerator and follow us on LinkedIn.

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