Morgan Stanley Launches Innovation Lab for Multicultural and Women-led Startups

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), a global financial services firm providing investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services, has launched an accelerator program for technology and technology-enabled startups in the post‐seed to Series A funding rounds.

The Multicultural Innovation Lab targets companies with a multicultural or woman founder, co‐founder or CTO who have the potential to develop innovations that could disrupt sectors.
The Lab will make investments in these early stage high growth companies and will support the founders’ growth and development through its ecosystem of internal and external partners.

The companies will work from Morgan Stanley’s global headquarters in Times Square, New York, and receive value‐add content, along with the fundamental and technical support necessary to accelerate growth.
The four‐month program will begin in July and run through the fall, culminating in an entrepreneurs’ symposium in mid-November that will expose companies to potential investors through showcase format presentations.

The Multicultural Innovation Lab has enlisted William Crowder, formerly head of Comcast Ventures, as its Entrepreneur-In-Residence. Crowder will work closely with both the entrepreneurs and the Multicultural Client Strategy team throughout the duration of the lab as a company insider to help address challenges that will increase and enhance performance and progress. Additionally, with input from other accelerator partners such as Newark Venture Partners and Techstars, entrepreneurs will have access to subject matter experts, practitioners and investors all committed to their success.

The companies that have been selected for the fall 2017 cohort are below:
– AptDeco, which connects buyers and sellers of quality preowned furniture via its peer-to-peer online platform, offering a complete end to end service including coordinated pick up and delivery.
– GitLinks, which protects the integrity of open source in application development by using automated software to monitor and oversee security, updates and legal compliance for enterprises.
– Kairos, which leverages artificial intelligence to provide integrated facial recognition that enables companies to transform brand experiences, increase discoverability and secure their businesses.
– Landit, which provides a two-pronged approach to increase success and engagement of women in the workplace, delivering personalized, application based advice at the individual and enterprise level.
– Trigger Finance, which allows the DIY Investor to set “If-Then” statements that can turn any financial or world event into an action on their portfolio using their proprietary rules-based investing platform.

FinSMEs

02/08/2017

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