Below is a December 2020 roundup of highlights from Founder Institute portfolio companies across the globe - see the most recent grad news and top media features of the month, new 1:1 livestream interviews with founders hitting impressive milestones, and pitch videos from the 10 recent FI Alumni who participated in the 18th Global Founder Showcase event on December 16th, 2020.
Alumni Funding + News Highlights:
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FightCamp (FI Montreal), the Peloton of boxing and combat sports, was featured in a piece on The UK Sun with the world’s biggest boxing celebrities, titled “Mike Tyson reveals his kids have become addicted to boxing after setting up FightCamp at home”
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Endiatx (FI Silicon Valley), a remotely controllable pill-sized GI diagnostic robot, was featured on the cover of MedTech Outlook magazine, with article headlined “Trailblazers in the Field of Tiny Medical Robots.” Founder Torrey Smith will be giving a live 'swallow demo' of the Endiatx PillBot on January 27th for the MIT Club of Northern California
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KnowRx (FI Austin) is included among MassChallenge HealthTech Announcement for 2021 Cohort of Top Digital Health Startups
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BRIDGR (FI Montreal) featured in the Techstars Montreal 2020 AI Virtual Demo Day showcasing the latest cohort, via Betakit
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Kudoti (FI Johannesburg), a digital waste management platform, among the winners of the hybrid 2020 AfricArena Summit, via Ventureburn
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Streamline Genomics (FI Montreal) brings on healthcare entrepreneur Curtis Duggan as new CEO
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Prowess Project (FI Austin), the mom-powered talent marketplace, launches Community to support the 2M women pushed out of work due to pandemic
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Ovamba co-founder & CEO Viola A. Llewellyn (FI Johannesburg) featured in "Spotlight Middle East And Africa: Mobile Phone Solutions for Africa’s New Digital Ecosystem” via the FinTech Times
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9jakids (FI Lagos), a mobile edtech platform, wins N5m grant from LASRIC
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SpaceiShare (FI Toronto) Teaches How to Find Cheap Storage Space in Toronto, via Yahoo Finance
Are you a pre-seed stage entrepreneur working to achieve startup traction or funding? Apply here to join a 100% virtual Founder Institute accelerator nearest you.
December Founder Interview:
Gary Woodhead is the founder of CurveBlock.io (FI London), a company that is applying blockchain technology toward allowing its users to invest in energy-conscious real estate development projects. The vision behind CurveBlock is to democratize construction, and return its benefits to everyday investors, while prioritizing only green ‘net-zero’ new construction projects.
December Leader Interview: Sunil Sharma
On December 10th, FI hosted Accelerate North America, a digital conference bringing together accelerator managers, ecosystem builders, and venture capitalists from across the continent, idea-stage to Series A. The first session kicked off with Founder Institute CEO Adeo Ressi giving a quick welcome, and soon joined onstage by Sunil Sharma for a conversation centered on startup ecosystems integration and developments across Canada.
Sunil Sharma is the Managing Director of Techstars Toronto, as well as the Director for the Toronto Founder Institute. Watch the interview to learn about best practices in integrating accelerators, venture builders, and venture capitalists to build stronger startup ecosystems.
December 2020 Global Founder Showcase:
Tim Chang, Partner at Mayfield Fund, joined us live as a featured keynote speaker - watch the fireside interview with Founder Institute CEO Adeo Ressi below:
And watch videos from the 10 recent Founder Institute Alumni who pitched in the December 2020 Global Founder Showcase here.
Click here to join us for the first-ever online Startup Idea Fest, to share and build upon and your business ideas with potential customers on Thursday, January 14th, 2021.
Or, you can click here to join us for Networking for a Remote Startup Co-Founder, a live and interactive online event taking place on Wednesday, January 27th, 2021.
Are you a pre-seed stage entrepreneur working to achieve startup traction or funding? Apply here to join a 100% virtual Founder Institute accelerator nearest you.
Graduates of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over $1.85BN in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.
See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/journey.
