After an inaugural session that “far exceeded” expectations, Connecticut Innovations invited five startups to participate in the fall 2012 TechStart Accelerator Program, which kicked off Sept. 17 in New Haven.
Included among the selected teams, drawn from a pool of 34 applicants, are FaceChecks, a facial recognition software company based in Bridgeport, and Lasso, a developer of networking software based in Shelton.
Through the accelerator, which was launched in January 2012, Connecticut Innovations, a state-backed vehicle designed to promote entrepreneurship, provides startup teams with $25,000 in seed funding through its TechStart Fund.
Teams selected to participate are paired with mentors and guided through a three-month program designed to help them refine their business plans and to make them attractive to potential investors.
With investment funds and angel investors signaling a greater willingness to make new investments as the economic recovery progresses, Connecticut Innovations CEO Claire Leonardi said it is just a matter of exposing them to viable early stage companies.
“Connecticut is really developing an environment where a lot of these companies are being well-received,” Leonardi said. “You have to develop all the different things simultaneously ”“ the pool of capital with the investment opportunities.”
Other teams participating in the fall session include Exerscript dPrevention, based in New Haven, which plans to offer a web-based platform to support people with diabetes; goBlue, also based in New Haven, which will work to integrate neuroscience technology with mindfulness training; and Innermost Labs, which is in the process of moving to Connecticut from Waltham, Mass., and which will provide mobile technology for conferences and other events.
Charlie Moret, who as managing director of business development at Connecticut Innovations runs the TechStart program, said expectations are high following a strong first round of the accelerator.
Nine teams were selected for the spring 2012 session out of 80 applicants, with seven completing the three-month program.
Of those, three companies have either received a funding commitment or are in the final stages of securing a commitment from investors, Moret said.
“At these very early stages, there are so many unknowns and they”™re still verifying and validating business models and trying to determine their strategies,” Moret said. “To have three of seven (advancing to the next stage) is just very exciting and far exceeded our expectations.”
Rocky Hill-based Connecticut Innovations was founded by the state Legislature in 1989, and since 1995 has supported all of its operations and funding initiatives through returns on its own investments.
Through various initiatives, Connecticut Innovations has assisted more than 100 emerging companies in attracting over $1 billion in additional investments from private investors and equity providers.
Moret said the organization”™s reputation likely works in favor of those companies that have been accepted into the TechStart accelerator.
“I think the outside investors felt that if Connecticut Innovations was putting up resources and believed in these companies, then they were at least interested in being at the table,” he said.
For the second session, each team will be paired with its own mentor and there will be other additions to the curriculum, Moret said. TechStart has also partnered with the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute at Yale University to help match student interns with the startup teams.
The teams will be outfitted with office space at CTech, a technology incubator at Yale University, where they will be able to meet and interact with representatives of other startup firms.
