By Melissa Pegus, Managing Director of Techstars Atlanta & New Orleans Powered by J.P. Morgan

Techstars Atlanta & New Orleans Powered by J.P. Morgan, proudly announces its inaugural class of 21 leading startups. After extensive outreach and collaboration, these startups were selected for their focus on commerce technology, CPG/consumer and creator economy. Over 13 weeks, founders will participate in a hybrid program, beginning with a retreat in Atlanta, Georgia followed by our programing where founders will benefit from a global network and resources in an inclusive virtual format.

This class underscores J.P. Morgan and Techstars' commitment to supporting underrepresented founders. J.P. Morgan offers a suite of services, including banking and wealth management, beyond the program, recognizing diversity and inclusion as catalysts for innovation and growth.

Without further delay, let's meet the Techstars Atlanta and New Orleans, powered by J.P. Morgan, Class of September 2024!

Atlanta 

• 40hammocks (Honolulu, HI) 

Mina Signson-Brightman (Co-Founder), Sebastian Borys (Co-Founder) & Kim Andreello (Co-Founder) 

40hammocks reimagines access to exclusive group travel benefits by helping leisure travel groups of different sizes access discounts on premium hotels and travel experiences that were exclusively for larger groups, while improving our hotel-partners' group bookings, through our data-powered pricing solution and sales strategies.

• Autoparti (Bogotá, Colombia)

Leonardo Gaitan (Co-Founder), Daniel Parea (Co-founder), Eriksson Torres (Co-founder) & Risell Urdaneta (Co-Founder)

Empowering SMBs in the automotive industry to achieve digital transformation and growth through technology

• Cadly, Inc (Atlanta, GA)

Pat Brennan (Founder) 

Cadly.ai provides designers and manufacturers with a unique opportunity to collaborate seamlessly. Our platform creates robust, market-ready MVPs, reducing risks and boosting success rates.

By empowering a global community, Cadly.ai unites innovators to drive forward new possibilities.

• ChipedIn (New York, NY)

Charles Medenilla (Founder) 

ChipedIn redefines the gifting experience by combining crowdfunding and personal shopper services, enabling communities to pool contributions for desired high-value gifts, thus minimizing returns and catering to the needs of both content creators and everyday individuals in the booming creator economy.

• CommerceJet (Seattle, WA)

Matt Ford (Co-Founder) & Alex Ailenei (Co-Founder)

CommerceJet is a SaaS platform that helps SME e-commerce businesses streamline operations across all sales channels. By integrating inventory, orders, and customer interactions, we reduce errors by 18% and increase order volumes by 84%. Our platform works with existing systems, allowing SMEs to scale efficiently without the need for costly overhauls.

• FourthParty (Atlanta, GA)

Melissa Brogdon (Founder) 

FourthParty’s B2B Saas solution for courts and mediators solves the 5 core challenges of launching, managing and growing a mediation business, within a single platform. Unlike the traditional model, our booking to billing interface makes it easy for people in conflict to identify, hire, and work with mediators. 

• GoSprout (Miami, FL) 

Carlos Vazquez (Founder)  

GoSprout is a platform that simplifies managing apprenticeship programs, internships, and experiential learning. It offers tools for program creation, tracking, compliance, and analytics. By connecting education with workforce needs, GoSprout helps organizations build skilled teams and fosters employer partnerships for growth.

• Hamilton Perkins Collections (Los Angeles, CA)

Hamilton Perkins (Founder) 

HPC makes award-winning products from corporate recycled materials while producing next-generation regenerative materials for the circular economy. We are working on depolymerization and biological funneling of mixed waste plastic.

• Liiv (New York, NY)

Devin Abraham (Founder) 

Liiv automates property management for housing authorities. We leverage software to streamline HUD compliance, manage tenant vouchers, improve communication, and eliminate inefficiencies in affordable housing management.

• Paperade AI, Inc (Miami, FL)

Elijah Buford (Co-Founders) & Francois Birori (Co-Founder)

For R&D-driven organizations that struggle with inefficient innovation processes and wasted R&D investments, Paperade AI provides an end-to-end AI-powered SaaS platform that streamlines the identification, evaluation, and commercialization of innovative technologies.

• QuickCart (Kingston, Jamaica) 

Monique Powell (Founder) 

QuickCart is an e-commerce and logistics company that is focused on helping merchants of all sizes to increase sales and leverage the internet, while enabling convenience for anyone wanting to get just about anything delivered from restaurants and stores nearby.

New Orleans

• BeautyVoyage  (Alaska, AK) 

MaryAlice Turletes (Founder) 

BeautyVoyage is a B2B peer mentorship marketplace platform. Beauty Pros can both hire and earn (double sided) through both in person job shadowing and online skill sharing mentoring experiences.

• Credential (New York, NY) 

Christer Holloman (Co-Founder), Anders Hallsten (Co-Founder) & John Yuen (Co-Founder)

For companies that sell/deliver projects that reduce carbon emissions (e.g. EV charging stations) to SMBs, we offer grant advance, installment plans and working capital loans from a panel of lenders, starting at 0% APR with 0% deposit

• Dataffluent (Kington,Jamaica)

Raquel Seville (Founder)

Our platform is designed to empower financial analysts, investors, and decision-makers with cutting-edge tools that streamline the analytical process, enhance accuracy, and market insights. We have 3 focus areas – automation, intelligence, and visualization. This allows our clients to focus on strategic decision-making rather than data gathering. We use machine learning algorithms for deep market insights and our platform presents complex data in an intuitive format to accelerate decisions.

• DoDocs inc (Sheridan & Dubai)

Daniil Gudkov (Founder)

.dodocs ai delivers developer tools and AI agents for processes automation. Our APIs are designed to shorten time dramatically on data and documents processing while AI agents are complex solutions that have many AI powered micro services that help to automate multitasking processes. 

• Eleven (Minneapolis, MN)

Thomas Knoll (Founder)

GetElevenApp is a single-purpose communication app that helps people capture and surface the most acute moments for coaching and growth.

• Interplay (Kansas City, MI) 

Jonaie Johnson (Founder)

Interplay is focused on easing the lives of busy pet parents with our patent pending product, the PlayTach. With the Interplay PlayTach, pet parents can now remotely control their dog’s crating experience with the click of a button. Our product allows them to dispense food & water, see & talk, and play music & sound for their dog from their phone while away via the Interplay App.

• Marble (Atlanta, GA)

Addison Smith (Co-Founder) & George Thomas (Co-Founder)

Using AI and machine learning, Marble provides contract drafting and analysis, state-specific legal information, and local, qualified attorneys to solve problems. Marble also offers small firms and solo practitioners high-quality lead generation and ready-made intake information packages to help grow their businesses.

• Pocmi Inc. (Jamaica) 

Melissa Powell (Founder)

Pocmi is a unique SaaS marketplace creating effortless global labor migration by bringing together selection, relocation and cultural immersion on one software platform for companies that need to find and import foreign professionals.

• Smply (Atlanta, GA) 

Jasmine Crockett (Founder)

Smply is an interior design planning platform that simplifies the process of creating beautiful spaces. Users can save design ideas and products, manage project budgets, and receive AI-generated recommendations tailored to their style. For personalized guidance, Smply offers direct access to professional designers. The platform is designed to make interior design accessible and enjoyable for everyone, from beginners to seasoned decorators.

• Tressed (Atlanta, GA) 

Shanise Thomason (Founder)

Tressed is what we like to call the " Warby Parker" of hair extensions and wigs. Tressed is revolutionizing the way people shop for hair extensions and wigs by offering a personalized, seamless experience both online and in-store. With our cutting-edge virtual try-on tool, customers can find the perfect fit and style from the comfort of their homes. By controlling every aspect of our business—from manufacturing to retail—we’re able to offer high-quality products at prices that are affordable and that make sense. We also cater to cancer and alopecia patients by accepting prescriptions and filing insurance claims. Tressed isn’t just another hair brand; we’re transforming the industry with innovation, trust, and care.

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