Bronze Valley Accelerator Announces Fall 2021 Companies
By: Haley Medved Kendrick, Bronze Valley Accelerator Director
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA — Nationally ranked startup accelerator gener8tor announced today the five companies selected for its Fall 2021 Bronze Valley Accelerator program. The startups were recruited from across the United States and represent a wide variety of industries and verticals, ranging from on-demand service applications to gig worker credentialing software.
The Fall 2021 Bronze Valley Accelerator cohort is the fourth class for the Bronze Valley Accelerator. The Bronze Valley Accelerator focuses on supporting female entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color using the gBETA model from gener8tor.
gBETA is a free, seven-week accelerator that works with five startups at a time for no fees and no equity. gBETA is a program of gener8tor. Each cohort is kept small to ensure meaningful engagement with the gener8tor team, network and other resources. Participants receive intensive and individualized coaching and access to gener8tor’s national network of mentors, customers, corporate partners and investors.
“The five teams selected for this cohort were chosen from the most competitive applicant pool we have seen to date,” said Haley Medved Kendrick, Director of the Bronze Valley Accelerator. “We expect these teams to continue to set a high bar for talent and innovation in Alabama and highlight the rich opportunities to invest in communities historically excluded from access to these ecosystems.”
More than 150 startups from Alabama and beyond applied to participate in the program.
The program kicked off on Thursday, September 30, and the startups will work with the gener8tor and Bronze Valley teams over the course of seven weeks to meet mentors, gain customer traction and pitch to investors. The Fall 2021 program is being held virtually.
“Bronze Valley is committed to supporting and nurturing innovators who are creating the future,” said Bronze Valley president and CEO Neill S. Wright. “The companies in the fall cohort of our Accelerator epitomize that commitment, and we are gratified by the tremendous response the Accelerator continues to receive.”
The program will culminate on November 22 at the Bronze Valley Accelerator Pitch Night, which will highlight each of the five companies. This virtual event will be an opportunity for the public to listen and learn more about the startups and network with the founders and other community members. For more information and to RSVP, visit www.bronzevalleyaccelerator.com/pitch-night.
“Working closely with gener8tor, the Bronze Valley Accelerator is a key component of our strategic efforts to grow and nourish the innovation ecosystem supporting entrepreneurs across the state,” said Greg Canfield, Secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce. “The accelerator gives talented founders the guidance and expertise they need to more effectively navigate the path toward success.”
The Bronze Valley Accelerator is supported by Bronze Valley, Alabama Power and the Alabama Department of Commerce. The program is held three times per year, with five companies accepted per cohort to ensure a high level of individualized attention and works with companies across all industries and business models. Those interested in learning more can reach out to Bronze Valley Accelerator Director Haley Medved Kendrick at haley@gener8tor.com or visit bronzevalleyaccelerator.com.
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Bronze Valley Accelerator Fall 2021 Cohort
Cyber Pop-up helps businesses get secure through an on-demand cybersecurity platform powered by vetted, highly skilled freelancers. Cyber Pop-up’s first-in-kind expert subscription offering is flexible, trustworthy, and affordable for businesses of all sizes. Cyber Pop-up has completed 100+ cybersecurity projects including a few with Fortune 1000 companies and their early impact and progress has garnered support from Google, SAP, Verizon/Techrise and more.
Founder and CEO: Christine Izuakor | christine@cyberpopup.com | cyberpopup.com
DataLakeHouse.io delivers answers to business questions through a self service business analytics platform including data pipelines orchestration, pre-built data warehouses, and pre-built opinionated KPI reporting. DataLakeHouse.io’s DataSync solution saves business leaders time and money by building sustainable pipelines and analytics solutions to replace one-off poorly maintained solutions. Since launching in Summer 2020, DataLakeHouse.io has generated over $250k in revenue, reflecting over 300M records processed, across more 10 data connectors currently available on the platform.
CEO & Founder: Christian Screen | christian.screen@datalakehouse.io | datalakehouse.io
DontHaggle allows buyers and sellers to exchange items for the fairest price possible without haggling. DontHaggle is a peer-to-peer online marketplace that doesn’t use list prices. Instead, DontHaggle processes the parties’ reservation points and calculates an equitable price within the reservation range. DontHaggle launched its alpha in Spring 2021 with 50 pilot users and will release the public beta in the fourth quarter of 2021.
CEO & Founder: Gavin Baum-Bake | gavin@donthaggle.com | donthaggle.com
GLOW connects vetted beauty professionals with users to book hairstyling, makeup application, and spray tan services in the comfort of their home, hotel or office through an on-demand app. GLOW uniquely empowers users not only to schedule beauty services on their own time, but on their own terms, by allowing users to choose the beauty professional they want to work with, the look they want to achieve, and the place they’d like to receive their services. GLOW has 65 beauty providers (“GlowPros”) in six markets and has serviced clients in over 23 cities nationwide. GLOW has generated over $360,000 in revenue from wedding and individual bookings in 2021.
CEO & Co-Founder: Yazmin Cavale | yaz@glowout.io | theglowapp.com
Pruuvn™ empowers the gig economy by developing credentialing and data management tools leveraging blockchain technology. Pruuvn’s platform simplifies the employees verification, screening and onboarding from multiple separate steps into one simple click. Pruuvn has secured six enterprise pilots totaling over 1,000 users on the platform.
CEO & Founder: Bryan Hobbs | bryan@pruuvn.com | pruuvn.com
About gener8tor
gener8tor’s turnkey platform for the creative economy connects startup founders, investors, corporations, universities, job seekers, musicians and artists. The gener8tor platform includes accelerators, upskilling, corporate programming, and conferences with content on community growth, impact investing, diversity, equity and inclusion, and innovation across education, agriculture, insurance, healthcare, and more. Recently, gener8tor was named one of Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators. For more information, visit gener8tor.com.
About gBETA
gBETA accelerates the growth of early-stage companies through its network-driven program. gBETA supports five teams per cohort and requires no fees and no equity. Since launching in 2015, gBETA program alumni have raised $258M+ in capital and created 2,514 jobs across the US and Canada. For more gBETA statistics, visit gbetastartups.com/statistics.
About Bronze Valley
Bronze Valley is a nonprofit, early stage venture investment platform that supports high growth, innovation and technology enabled companies created by diverse, underrepresented and underestimated founders. The mission of Bronze Valley is to provide an education-to opportunity-to-outcome pipeline for communities that are underrepresented in technology careers and in fields where innovators will shape the future.
