Investor directory

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.

Focus

Pre Seed RoundSeed RoundArtificial IntelligenceMachine LearningSeries AShow more
http://techstars.com/ventures
https://crunchbase.com/organization/techstars
https://facebook.com/techstars
https://linkedin.com/company/techstars
https://twitter.com/techstars
https://www.capitaliq.com/CIQDotNet/company.aspx?companyId=431767203
https://www.privateequityinternational.com/database/#/profile?id=14977

Ethan Austin

MD of the Techstars Western Union Accelerator

Mark Tortorella

Advisor

Nathanial Zola

MD

Past deals in Publishing

Pepper

Pre Seed Round in 2020
Pepper is a personalized nutrition company based in Chicago, Illinois, founded in 2016. It focuses on empowering individuals to manage their dietary habits at home through innovative kitchen technology. The company is also developing a suite of nutrition APIs that assist health, food, insurance, and technology firms in enhancing user experiences and making informed business decisions. Additionally, Pepper operates a content-mediation platform that connects skilled writers with organizations seeking customized content solutions, ensuring high-quality writing services tailored to various needs.

NICKLpass

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Nic.kl Inc. offers an e-publishing service to help publishers monetize quality news articles. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is based in Brooklyn, New York.

Catalog

Seed Round in 2018
Catalog is a Los Angeles-based platform that assists online brands in sourcing original visual content. The company employs technology to streamline the production of photos and videos, hiring photographers, stylists, models, and editors to create tailored visual content for specific products. Users can sign up to select the quantity of content they need, define the types of shots, and choose styles that align with their brand aesthetics. Catalog manages all aspects of the content creation process, including logistics, props, and legal compliance, allowing companies of all sizes to effectively convey their narratives through custom visuals.

Islands

Pre Seed Round in 2016
Islands Media Inc. operates a platform that connects students across colleges through events and activities. The company's platform enables users to organize games, share class notes, or create a group. Islands Media Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is based in San Francisco, California.

Contactable

Seed Round in 2015
Contactable is a database that enables its users to find journalists by their topics of interests. It also enables them to review previously written content of the listed journalists.

Sketchfab

Series A in 2015
Sketchfab is empowering a new era of creativity by making it easy for anyone to publish and find 3D content online. With a community of millions of creators who have published millions of models, it serves as a platform for immersive and interactive 3D. Additionally, its store lets buyers and sellers transact 3D models with confidence using our real-time viewer and model inspector.

Sidelines

Seed Round in 2014
Sidelines, Inc. operates an online community for building a bridge between informed content creators and their audience. It amplifies writers’ voice to reach readers by featuring their work on premium digital publications; provides content publishers with premium discussions natively on their site; and enables brands to target demographic through authentic discussions they can sponsor. The company was founded in 2010 and is based in San Francisco, California.

Story2

Seed Round in 2014
Story2, LLC operates an online platform focused on essay writing and storytelling to assist students in the college admissions process. It offers EssayBuilder, a tool designed to help users plan, organize, and develop their college admission essays while also enabling them to share their narratives with peers and community members. Additionally, Story2 provides essay coaching services, which include personalized feedback and one-on-one online coaching aimed at enhancing the chances of admission to selective colleges. The company also offers admissions consulting to support students in their academic and career planning, helping them craft compelling personal stories. Founded in 2011 and based in New York, Story2 aims to build writing confidence and persistence among students by transforming their experiences into engaging narratives.

Magnific

Seed Round in 2014
Magnific creates unique original written content from a pool of 750+ writers, then has the skillset to make this content go viral. They racked up 6 million+ page views on the sites they run in Q1 2014, & offer their content writing and social media services to corporate clients. They are finding new ways to monetise content.

Litographs

Seed Round in 2014
Litographs helps authors connect with fans by producing tasteful, customizable and unique literary merchandise.Litographs creates art from the books you've read and loved. Our posters, t-shirts, and tote bags are all created entirely from the text of classic books. Our designs were created by a team of artists from all over the world. From a distance, the artwork illustrates a theme, character, or setting from each book. Move closer and the text becomes fully legible.Litographs is committed to promoting literacy, both at home and abroad.We're proud to partner with the International Book Bank to send one new, high-quality book to a community in need for each product we sell.

Sketchfab

Seed Round in 2013
Sketchfab is empowering a new era of creativity by making it easy for anyone to publish and find 3D content online. With a community of millions of creators who have published millions of models, it serves as a platform for immersive and interactive 3D. Additionally, its store lets buyers and sellers transact 3D models with confidence using our real-time viewer and model inspector.

Written

Pre Seed Round in 2013
Written.com helps brands build a highly-engaged, precision-targeted audience, while also helping bloggers build influence and monetize their top content. Written.com facilitates content licensing, content syndication, and sponsored content for top brands. Written.com is a network for bloggers who want to earn premium fees for their best content. Want to give your blog’s archive new life? Introduce your work to new audiences and new markets? Written.com is a more credible way to get paid, with no extra effort or risk.

Sketchfab

Seed Round in 2013
Sketchfab is empowering a new era of creativity by making it easy for anyone to publish and find 3D content online. With a community of millions of creators who have published millions of models, it serves as a platform for immersive and interactive 3D. Additionally, its store lets buyers and sellers transact 3D models with confidence using our real-time viewer and model inspector.

Student Reading Lists

Seed Round in 2012
Student Reading Lists is an academically-minded startup, that aims to make reading requirements transparent. It also hopes to connect students and universities with commercial partners on a central platform. The service makes compiling, validating and sharing course resources between educators, administrators and students a seamless and cost-effective process.

Prolific Works

Pre Seed Round in 2012
Provider of an online publishing platform designed to connect readers with books. The company's online publishing platform offers authors to gain visibility and promote their work and increase their following, enabling authors to do a marketing for their books.

Libboo

Seed Round in 2012
Libboo connects buzzers (readers who love to share and talk about books) with books they'll enjoy, to create the next digital bestseller and help talented authors get discovered. Buzzers get rewards such as free ebooks, and increase their influence by sharing great writing with their friends and followers via social media, email, and other online channels.

Prolific Works

Seed Round in 2011
Provider of an online publishing platform designed to connect readers with books. The company's online publishing platform offers authors to gain visibility and promote their work and increase their following, enabling authors to do a marketing for their books.

Libboo

Seed Round in 2011
Libboo connects buzzers (readers who love to share and talk about books) with books they'll enjoy, to create the next digital bestseller and help talented authors get discovered. Buzzers get rewards such as free ebooks, and increase their influence by sharing great writing with their friends and followers via social media, email, and other online channels.

Publification Ltd

Seed Round in 2011
Publification is a platform for creating, promoting and selling cloud-based ebooks that open on over 2 billion device. Browser books deliver an app-like reading experience on browsers. No files to download, no software to install, no dedicated e-reader devices. All it takes is just one click on a book URL and you can start reading instantaneously. The HTML5 based Browserbook reader automatically fits any screen size, can handle rich media, is social media friendly and supports offline reading. For authors, browser books give direct access to their customers and ensure that marketing budget is not spent on the right channels.

Graphicly

Series A in 2010
The Graphicly platform offers automated self-publishing by converting, distributing and promoting image-based digital content across the most popular consumer mobile and eBook marketplaces including the Apple iOS Newsstand and iBookstore, Barnes & Noble NOOK Color, Amazon Kindle store, Facebook and many others, while streamlining the work flow, reducing production costs significantly and providing authors and publishers detailed real-time analytics. As the only platform that optimizes image-based content, Graphicly is uniquely poised to take advantage of the $23 billion publishing market, including the more than 300,000 self-published authors expected to produce a graphical work this year.

Graphicly

Seed Round in 2009
The Graphicly platform offers automated self-publishing by converting, distributing and promoting image-based digital content across the most popular consumer mobile and eBook marketplaces including the Apple iOS Newsstand and iBookstore, Barnes & Noble NOOK Color, Amazon Kindle store, Facebook and many others, while streamlining the work flow, reducing production costs significantly and providing authors and publishers detailed real-time analytics. As the only platform that optimizes image-based content, Graphicly is uniquely poised to take advantage of the $23 billion publishing market, including the more than 300,000 self-published authors expected to produce a graphical work this year.