Up to ten companies will be given the chance to join CVL 6: Urban Resilience and Smart Cities
The Conscious Venture Lab (CVL), an accelerator in partnership with SHIFT Ventures and the Conscious Venture Fund I, announced today that applications are open for Conscious Venture Lab 6: Urban Resilience and Smart Cities. The team is searching for entrepreneurs who are building businesses that align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and will solve urban challenges such as education, economic inequality, food security, sustainability, and more.
Up to ten companies will be selected to participate and receive up to a $100K investment. The deadline for applications is March 13, 2020 and the program will run from August to December 2020.
“In 2019, we welcomed a record nine companies to our fifth cohort, with the majority proudly owned by female and minority founders. We believe that smart, talented people are equally distributed across our society, but that opportunities are often limited because of race and gender. Our goal over the next 10 years is to invest in 600 female and minority founders throughout the country, so we remain committed to finding diverse leaders for our sixth cohort and beyond,” said Jeff Cherry, CEO of the Conscious Venture Lab and SHIFT Ventures. “We continue to welcome companies who constantly find ways to create societal and financial value for underserved communities.”
The program, which was also ranked as a 2019 Top Accelerator in the country by AlphaGamma, features a robust four-month curriculum that provides entrepreneurs with a foundation for building a company and vision based on purpose, while focusing on the skills needed to build sustainable business models.
Cherry said, “We’re also really excited about the new curriculum updates we’ve made with our partners at the Darden School of the University of Virginia and our plan to use different forms of financing, like revenue based redeemable equity, that will help us extend and improve our program for more entrepreneurs.”
On January 9, 2020 the Conscious Venture Lab and SHIFT Ventures will the graduate its fifth cohort at the National Aquarium. The presenting companies are MileMarker, SafetyPIN Technologies, LifeTagger, ReVased, County Sports Zone, HostHome Inc., Politicking, iQuantile, and We Are Marcus.
Several program graduates have made significant strides in their industries and hit major company milestones. This year, Ortus Academy, a financial literacy program for students and adults, got the opportunity to expand nationally by launching a technology platform called The Money Club. One of the first graduates, Hungry Harvest, a produce delivery company on a mission to end food waste and hunger, has expanded service to nine states, launched a partnership with Whole30, and won a deal on NBC’s Shark Tank.
The Conscious Venture Lab was founded in 2013 with sponsorship from The Howard County Economic Development Authority.
Applications are being accepted here: https://www.f6s.com/
About SHIFT Ventures and the Conscious Venture Lab:
The Conscious Venture Lab is on a mission is to uncover entrepreneurial talent wherever it might be found. In 2017, Conscious Venture Lab’s parent company, The Porter Group joined forces with Baltimore-based SHIFT to form SHIFT Ventures in order to help entrepreneurs achieve increased levels of growth and sustainability. Together, the companies can offer innovators and entrepreneurs new corporate partners, investors, and world-class consulting expertise.
