Techstars

Techstars Central LLC, founded in 2006 and based in Boulder, Colorado, operates as a startup accelerator and venture capital firm focused on supporting early-stage technology-oriented companies. It specializes in a mentorship-driven accelerator program, selecting ten startups each summer to participate in a three-month incubation period, offering funding of $120,000 in exchange for equity. Techstars invests primarily in sectors such as fintech, artificial intelligence, blockchain, augmented reality, and IoT, while avoiding investments in medical devices, healthcare technology, and local service-oriented businesses. In addition to its primary accelerator, Techstars has various specialized programs, including those focused on music, retail, mobility, and social impact, with global reach extending to regions such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The firm prefers taking minority stakes, typically between six and ten percent, without seeking board representation or investor rights. Techstars has built a robust network of entrepreneurs, mentors, and corporate partners to foster innovation and growth within its portfolio, which includes over 1,000 companies with a significant collective market capitalization.

Ethan Austin

MD of the Techstars Western Union Accelerator

Max Kelly

Managing Director of Techstars London

Lesa Mitchell

Managing Director

Vijay Tirathrai

Managing Director

Mark Tortorella

Advisor

Nathanial Zola

MD

Past deals in Leasing

ShowingHero

Pre Seed Round in 2022
Showing Hero provide a simple solution to the leasing woes. The moment a prospect tenant shows interest either online or through the phone, ShowingHero steps in. They respond to 100% of leads, pre-screen and provide them access to your market listing and available showtimes. They nurture the prospect by sending customized communications on a timely basis through email and text; reminding them about their upcoming appointment to help drastically reduce no-shows. ShowingHero also follows up with tenants and gathers feedback on the showing and the property, giving you insight each step of the way!

Rent Small Small

Pre Seed Round in 2022
Rent Small Small Ltd. is a prop-tech platform providing a unique rental solution to Nigerians in order to improve home-seekers rental experience and increase home-owners occupancy rate. Our business model is unique as it allows verified tenants to find property on-the-go, stay within budget, and pay rent flexibly. We provide first of its kind rent insurance for property owners against rent default, and unlike traditional agents, we don’t charge agency and legal fee. Our mandate is to provide suitable and affordable homes for home-seekers, influence the conception and birth of new homes to boost the livelihood and productivity of Nigerian youths, and help homeowners to make their property rentable and profitable.

Flecto

Venture Round in 2022
Flecto is the rental platform that makes businesses thrive in the circular economy.

Gigmile

Pre Seed Round in 2022
Gigmile provides financial services. They provide gig workers with core services and an affordable lease on productive assets that is tailored to their earnings to enable them to succeed in the mobility industry as entrepreneurs.

Leo

Seed Round in 2022
Leo is a recruiting tool that empowers employers and employment agencies through agile recruiting. They recognize that technology is at the heart of every successful recruiting, applicant, hiring manager, and client experience. The contact mode of the company is by mail, phone, and physical address.

Renbizz

Pre Seed Round in 2021
With their unique model that unifies rentals and sales, Renbizz accelerates retailers' growth in a sustainable manner.

RentCheck

Seed Round in 2021
RentCheck Holdings, Inc. is a New Orleans-based company that offers a mobile application designed to standardize the move-in and move-out inspection process for landlords and tenants. Founded in 2018, RentCheck provides property management solutions that facilitate various types of inspections, including move-in, move-out, annual, and periodic assessments. The application aims to enhance transparency and security in the rental process, allowing both landlords and residents to save time and money while simplifying the security deposit deduction process. By empowering tenants to take an active role in managing their security deposits, RentCheck fosters a more equitable and efficient rental experience.

ReRent

Pre Seed Round in 2021
ReRent is a developer of a property management platform that enables students to avoid debt and recoup thousands in rent wasted. Its platform creates the listing, prepares the space, welcomes the guests, and cleans up that helps students to monetize their apartment space while they're away.

Denim

Series A in 2021
Axle Payments specializes in providing financial solutions to the freight industry, focusing on small freight brokers and their carriers. Founded in 2016 by Shawn Vo and Bharath Krishnamoorthy, the company is headquartered in New York. Axle Payments offers non-recourse factoring and payment processing services, which help brokers and carriers access the working capital they need to operate effectively. In addition to factoring, the company provides integrated payment solutions, collections, and financing options that enhance the efficiency and transparency of financial transactions within the logistics sector. Axle Payments aims to support the sustainability of the global logistics industry through its innovative financial services.

Livo

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Livo platform called LivoSecure maximizes rental yields by leveraging technology to allow renters to make offers in real-time based on rental amount, move-in date, and term of the lease.

Denim

Debt Financing in 2020
Axle Payments specializes in providing financial solutions to the freight industry, focusing on small freight brokers and their carriers. Founded in 2016 by Shawn Vo and Bharath Krishnamoorthy, the company is headquartered in New York. Axle Payments offers non-recourse factoring and payment processing services, which help brokers and carriers access the working capital they need to operate effectively. In addition to factoring, the company provides integrated payment solutions, collections, and financing options that enhance the efficiency and transparency of financial transactions within the logistics sector. Axle Payments aims to support the sustainability of the global logistics industry through its innovative financial services.

Denim

Seed Round in 2020
Axle Payments specializes in providing financial solutions to the freight industry, focusing on small freight brokers and their carriers. Founded in 2016 by Shawn Vo and Bharath Krishnamoorthy, the company is headquartered in New York. Axle Payments offers non-recourse factoring and payment processing services, which help brokers and carriers access the working capital they need to operate effectively. In addition to factoring, the company provides integrated payment solutions, collections, and financing options that enhance the efficiency and transparency of financial transactions within the logistics sector. Axle Payments aims to support the sustainability of the global logistics industry through its innovative financial services.

Hiveway

Pre Seed Round in 2020
Hiveway is a car share program that facilitates participation in the future of mobility through vehicle sourcing and fleet management services. It provides an all-in-one integrated platform for managing fleets, finding drivers, and overseeing the rental process. Additionally, Hiveway offers a unique solution for investors interested in financing shared cars. The company features in-house fleet management software that allows clients to monitor performance, adjust pricing in real-time, and rent vehicles across multiple websites. This comprehensive approach aims to enhance the overall efficiency and accessibility of car sharing.

Fernish

Series A in 2020
Fernish is a furniture rental startup company that offers provides furniture as a subscription model to consumers living a mobile lifestyle. The company seeks to redefine the way the market sees furniture rental by positioning itself as a lifestyle brand. It offers a rent to own program that allows subscribers to apply their previous payments towards the cost of the piece or pieces they want to buy at the end of their subscription. Users are allowed to subscribe to an entire room or specific pieces and can even swap out things they don’t like or simply want to change up at any point. Founders Michael Barlow and Lucas Dickey launched the company in Los Angeles, California in 2017.

Rnters

Pre Seed Round in 2020
Rnters, Unipessoal Lda. is an online rental marketplace based in Lisbon, Portugal, that facilitates the renting of everyday items, including GoPros, bikes, video games, books, and various other products. Founded in 2016 by Guilherme Guerra, the platform allows users to save money by renting items they need while enabling others to profit from their underutilized assets. Rnters offers access to over 3,000 unique items, providing a cost-effective alternative to purchasing goods outright. The company's innovative approach supports a sharing economy, encouraging users to both rent and lend items, thereby enhancing resource efficiency and accessibility.

Rnters

Pre Seed Round in 2020
Rnters, Unipessoal Lda. is an online rental marketplace based in Lisbon, Portugal, that facilitates the renting of everyday items, including GoPros, bikes, video games, books, and various other products. Founded in 2016 by Guilherme Guerra, the platform allows users to save money by renting items they need while enabling others to profit from their underutilized assets. Rnters offers access to over 3,000 unique items, providing a cost-effective alternative to purchasing goods outright. The company's innovative approach supports a sharing economy, encouraging users to both rent and lend items, thereby enhancing resource efficiency and accessibility.

Denim

Pre Seed Round in 2020
Axle Payments specializes in providing financial solutions to the freight industry, focusing on small freight brokers and their carriers. Founded in 2016 by Shawn Vo and Bharath Krishnamoorthy, the company is headquartered in New York. Axle Payments offers non-recourse factoring and payment processing services, which help brokers and carriers access the working capital they need to operate effectively. In addition to factoring, the company provides integrated payment solutions, collections, and financing options that enhance the efficiency and transparency of financial transactions within the logistics sector. Axle Payments aims to support the sustainability of the global logistics industry through its innovative financial services.

Hiveway

Seed Round in 2019
Hiveway is a car share program that facilitates participation in the future of mobility through vehicle sourcing and fleet management services. It provides an all-in-one integrated platform for managing fleets, finding drivers, and overseeing the rental process. Additionally, Hiveway offers a unique solution for investors interested in financing shared cars. The company features in-house fleet management software that allows clients to monitor performance, adjust pricing in real-time, and rent vehicles across multiple websites. This comprehensive approach aims to enhance the overall efficiency and accessibility of car sharing.

Fast Office

Seed Round in 2019
FastOffice is a leasing due-diligence solution that provides incredibly fast 3D test fits and comprehensive cost estimates to increase tenant confidence and accelerate deal velocity. The company was founded in 2017.

Le Car

Pre Seed Round in 2019
To simplify the car buying process and empower people to make better mobility choices. Le Car matches people to vehicles aligned with their needs and wants.

RentCheck

Pre Seed Round in 2019
RentCheck Holdings, Inc. is a New Orleans-based company that offers a mobile application designed to standardize the move-in and move-out inspection process for landlords and tenants. Founded in 2018, RentCheck provides property management solutions that facilitate various types of inspections, including move-in, move-out, annual, and periodic assessments. The application aims to enhance transparency and security in the rental process, allowing both landlords and residents to save time and money while simplifying the security deposit deduction process. By empowering tenants to take an active role in managing their security deposits, RentCheck fosters a more equitable and efficient rental experience.

Chord

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Chord is the home finance company for the millennial tired of throwing away money each month on rent but doesn’t want to take on a ton of mortgage debt in order to buy. Chord provides a flexible, non-debt alternative to a traditional mortgage, giving the power of equity financing to home buyers for the first time. They’ve created a fundamentally new financial product for the consumer, and with that are unlocking a very important new asset class — owner-occupied housing — for investors.

Riders Share

Seed Round in 2019
Riders Share is a peer-to-peer marketplace startup that offers street-legal motorcycle rentals. Its platform enables riders to book any bike they want online, from stock low capacity bikes to high-end full custom rides, all while avoiding the grueling process that is traditional rentals. It offers motorcycle rentals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Washington, Seattle, Boston, Denver, and more. With over 2,000 motorcycles listed, Riders Share has the largest variety of motorcycle rental inventory available in the U.S.

PadSplit

Seed Round in 2019
PadSplit is an affordable housing tech startup that provides a house-sharing service for the workforce. It offers a platform that aligns incentives among residents, property owners, and communities to make affordable housing possible for the private market. The company uses shared living to make housing more affordable for low-income, empowering them to build savings and transform their lives. Atticus LeBlanc established the company in Atlanta, Georgia in 2017.

Fernish

Venture Round in 2019
Fernish is a furniture rental startup company that offers provides furniture as a subscription model to consumers living a mobile lifestyle. The company seeks to redefine the way the market sees furniture rental by positioning itself as a lifestyle brand. It offers a rent to own program that allows subscribers to apply their previous payments towards the cost of the piece or pieces they want to buy at the end of their subscription. Users are allowed to subscribe to an entire room or specific pieces and can even swap out things they don’t like or simply want to change up at any point. Founders Michael Barlow and Lucas Dickey launched the company in Los Angeles, California in 2017.

PadSplit

Pre Seed Round in 2018
PadSplit is an affordable housing tech startup that provides a house-sharing service for the workforce. It offers a platform that aligns incentives among residents, property owners, and communities to make affordable housing possible for the private market. The company uses shared living to make housing more affordable for low-income, empowering them to build savings and transform their lives. Atticus LeBlanc established the company in Atlanta, Georgia in 2017.

Fernish

Venture Round in 2018
Fernish is a furniture rental startup company that offers provides furniture as a subscription model to consumers living a mobile lifestyle. The company seeks to redefine the way the market sees furniture rental by positioning itself as a lifestyle brand. It offers a rent to own program that allows subscribers to apply their previous payments towards the cost of the piece or pieces they want to buy at the end of their subscription. Users are allowed to subscribe to an entire room or specific pieces and can even swap out things they don’t like or simply want to change up at any point. Founders Michael Barlow and Lucas Dickey launched the company in Los Angeles, California in 2017.

Flip

Seed Round in 2018
Flip is a marketplace designed to facilitate rental housing transactions. Based in New York, it connects small and medium-sized landlords with prospective tenants, enabling landlords to find suitable renters and manage their properties effectively. The platform also assists renters by providing a means to exit unwanted lease agreements and transition into new rental opportunities. Through its application, Flip streamlines the process of buying and selling leases, making it easier for both landlords and tenants to navigate the rental market.

Denim

Convertible Note in 2017
Axle Payments specializes in providing financial solutions to the freight industry, focusing on small freight brokers and their carriers. Founded in 2016 by Shawn Vo and Bharath Krishnamoorthy, the company is headquartered in New York. Axle Payments offers non-recourse factoring and payment processing services, which help brokers and carriers access the working capital they need to operate effectively. In addition to factoring, the company provides integrated payment solutions, collections, and financing options that enhance the efficiency and transparency of financial transactions within the logistics sector. Axle Payments aims to support the sustainability of the global logistics industry through its innovative financial services.

Ownerhood

Seed Round in 2017
Ownerhood is addressing the residential real-estate market failure in large cities. Buying a property has become a “right” reserved for high net worth individuals. Millennials who actually live in those houses, even the ones earning significantly above average, cannot save enough to buy a house. An entire generation of millennials who want to buy a house, simply cannot afford to. With low supply and high demand – chances of them catching up are slim. Ownerhood’s innovation is simple: by breaking properties into smaller tradable slices Ownerhood removes barriers to homeownership and promotes frictionless access to the residential real-estate market via a simple, digital, crowd driven marketplace.

Leblum

Seed Round in 2016
Leblum, Inc. operates an online platform that allows users to reserve and schedule the delivery of flowers directly from growers. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in New York, the company aims to transform the floral experience by emphasizing the connection between people and nature through flowers. Leblum promotes the idea that flowers are essential reminders of inherent beauty and grace, fostering a deeper appreciation for the natural world.

Flip

Angel Round in 2016
Flip is a marketplace designed to facilitate rental housing transactions. Based in New York, it connects small and medium-sized landlords with prospective tenants, enabling landlords to find suitable renters and manage their properties effectively. The platform also assists renters by providing a means to exit unwanted lease agreements and transition into new rental opportunities. Through its application, Flip streamlines the process of buying and selling leases, making it easier for both landlords and tenants to navigate the rental market.

Flip

Convertible Note in 2015
Flip is a marketplace designed to facilitate rental housing transactions. Based in New York, it connects small and medium-sized landlords with prospective tenants, enabling landlords to find suitable renters and manage their properties effectively. The platform also assists renters by providing a means to exit unwanted lease agreements and transition into new rental opportunities. Through its application, Flip streamlines the process of buying and selling leases, making it easier for both landlords and tenants to navigate the rental market.

DriveShare

Seed Round in 2015
DriveShare brings the “sharing economy” into the car enthusiast’s garage. Classic and exotic car enthusiasts can now offset their car ownership costs by renting their cars to pre-screened, highly qualified renters. Every rental includes up to $1 million in insurance protection and access to the most comprehensive full-service roadside program designed specifically for classic and exotic cars. Whether a person is looking for a 1956 Chevrolet BelAir for a night out on the town or a 1979 Ferrari 308 for a drive down the coast, Classics&Exotics is looking to connect owners with renters and is free to join with no costly membership fees. The mission of Classics&Exotics is “To make these amazing vehicles available to the masses"

inRentive

Seed Round in 2014
inRentive is a cloud-based platform for managing multifamily housing listings and vacancy content, including photos, pricing, and specific unit-level availability. The platform is fully integrated with apartments.com and is also integrated with most major property management software. Users can create, add or edit building, model, and unit level listings; create and manage referral campaigns; post ad to Craigslist in under 30 seconds; and utilize the offered advanced analytics, customizable market rent comparison analyzer, advanced user role management, real-time ""Check Availability"" tool for Facebook, and the reputation management tool. inRentive was founded by Josh Childs, Melissa Moline, and Abram Nelson in August 2012 and is based in Chicago, Illinois, the United States.

NameLayer

Acquisition in 2013
NameLayer is a company that specializes in the domain name aftermarket, utilizing advanced algorithms to identify high-quality domain names that are suitable for tech startups. By streamlining the process of company name brainstorming and negotiation, NameLayer addresses the challenges entrepreneurs face in acquiring brandable domain names. The platform offers a curated selection of domain names, with prices ranging from $2,000 to $9,000, making it easier for startups to secure meaningful and memorable names for their businesses.

RentMethod

Pre Seed Round in 2012
We believe renting a home should be enjoyable. Nobody likes playing phone-tag to schedule apartment showings, or the paperwork to put in an application and sign a lease. RentMethod takes away the pains and makes it easy to rent your home. Simply schedule an appointment online and one of our agents will show you through the property. Our website streamlines the process of applying for your favorite home.

RollSale

Seed Round in 2012
RollSale helps car owners quickly find a local dealer that will pay them the most for their car, so they can drive in and pick up a check. For car dealers, RollSale is a single portal that gives dealers direct access to consumer-owned vehicles, rental and off-lease cars, and even cars from other dealers.

RentMatch

Seed Round in 2010
Finding a place to rent sucks, but finding out after moving in that you don’t like living at the place you rented sucks even more. RentMatch is a new apartment ratings and review service to help renters avoid buyer's remorse and choose the best place to rent. RentMatch combines user generated content and data from publicly available resources like city and county government to provide prospective tenants with everything they should know about a property before they sign a lease. The company does not compete with existing rental listing sites (Craigslist, Rent.com, MyNewPlace, etc.) and does not provide availability information on properties. The company models itself after TripAdvisor and how TripAdvisor passes leads to sites like Expedia or Priceline.

RentMonitor

Pre Seed Round in 2010
RentMonitor makes it easy to be a landlord. We are the one property management solution landlords need to fill vacancies, collect rent and maximize profits.