I’m excited to announce that we’ve opened applications for the 2017 class of Techstars Retail in partnership with Target. You can apply online by going to www.techstars.com/apply. Applications are open through April 9th and the program starts in July.
Watch this video for a great overview of the program.
Recapping Last Year
In case you missed it, our first year of the Techstars Retail accelerator was a massive success. We had 11 startups from all over the world descend upon Minneapolis for the summer. They received mentorship throughout the program from Target’s senior leadership, successful retail-tech entrepreneurs, and investors from across the country.
Our Demo Day was a blur but it was incredibly exciting to see almost 1,000 investors, mentors, Target team members, and supporters from all over the Twin Cities startup community show up and support our companies.
And wow — did they kill it! Here are some highlights of what was accomplished by our startups during the program:
- Inspectorio – Announced in just 11 months, Inspectorio has already completed 2,000 inspections for 21 clients in seven countries. They recently announced closing a $3.7M funding round led by Target.
- Nexosis – Announced the company saved more than $90,000 in one location in a pilot with Pepsi this past summer and they are integrating into the Shopify e-commerce platform. They recently announced closing a $5M Series A round
- Branch – Shared the results of their successful pilot program with Target stores and plans to move headquarters to Minneapolis. Branch is will soon announce the closing of their seed round.
- Revolar – Announced a partnership with the National Domestic Assault Hotline and university campuses to tackle campus assaults in 2017.
- Blueprint Registry – Announced multiple partnerships that is expected to increase the number of accounts on its site to over a million. They recently announced closing a $1M seed round.
- Spruce – Started the program as one company and ended as two. Spun out technology company, SpruceBot, from their retail location and are on a mission to exponentially improve the customer retail experience for millennials.
Since our program has wrapped up, our companies have already collectively raised almost $15M, with another $5M to $10M coming soon. Stay tuned, as many more partnerships and deals are in the works to be announced this year.
What to expect in 2017
For 2017, we expect to once again find the top Retail Tech startups from around the world and welcome them to Minneapolis for the summer to our beautiful working space located, literally, within Target HQ.
Have a disruptive retail technology startup? We’d love to chat. We’ll be visiting New York City, Cincinnati, Toronto, Waterloo, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Miami, Austin, Washington DC, Boulder/Denver, San Francisco and Los Angeles to discuss our program. Simply send an email to ryan@techstars.com to coordinate.
All in all, it was an incredibly successful first program and we are already looking forward to the next! Apply here.