Competitions

NYU Steinhardt Edtech Accelerator’s 2016 Cohort Starting Up Chatbots, Augmented Reality Tools and More

• By Sri Ravipati
• 12/08/16

A startup accelerator from New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and StartEd Companies is concluding a three-month mentorship program with nine Ed Tech startups in New York City. The startups each have a chance to receive up to $170,000 in funding to further develop their tech solutions “focused on improving education and learning” – from admissions chatbots to augmented reality curricula.

More than 430 applicants applied to the NYU Steinhardt Edtech Accelerator, which is “designed to help entrepreneurs dramatically accelerate their business,” according to a prepared statement. StartEd’s investment selection committee comprising VCs, CEOs, angel investors as well as NYU Steinhardt professors chose “unique” companies that already had some level of product offering or revenue.

The cohort includes:

• Admission Table (Bangalore, India), an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot for university admissions;
• Alumnify (San Francisco, CA), an enterprise platform for alumni services.
• AugThat (New York, NY), augmented reality curricula for elementary and middle school students;
• Bering (Brooklyn, NY), a data analytics platform for research scientists;
• EduKids Connect Systems (New York, NY), an information system for child care providers;
• NeuroNet Learning (Gainesville, FL), a research-based early reading program designed to assist students with essential reading, handwriting skills and math;
• TheTalkList (San Diego, CA), a language learning exchange platform;     
• Trovvit (Brooklyn, NY), a social digital portfolio tool; and
• Versity U (Jeffersonville, IN), a nursing exam platform.

The program began Oct. 2. Startups worked out of an incubator located in a NYU Steinhardt building, where they collaborated with “world renowned experts and luminaries in education, technology and startups,” according to a statement. The program ends in two weeks during NY Edtech Week (Dec. 19-21), when the startup founders will each present a three-minute pitch. The “Shark Tank” style event will take place at NYU’s Washington Square Campus.

“The technologies and solutions in our 2016 cohort are helping lay the foundations of the future of education,” said Ashantha Kaluarachchi, StartEd managing director, in a statement. “These companies will build on ed tech’s position as a truly global marketplace and change the way people learn, teach and use technology.”

Further information is available on the StartEd Accelerator site.