Prosper Capital is announcing the first cohort of its Prosper Startup Accelerator program. Prosper Startup Accelerator is one of the first accelerators in the country designed exclusively to help women raise the money needed to help their startups succeed. More than 220 women applied to be awarded a $50,000 capital investment.

“We want to give women tools that will help them be more effective in the day-to-day world of entrepreneurship and venture capital,” said Dr. Mary Jo Gorman, Prosper Capital Lead Managing Partner. “We also want to create a mechanism for more women to invest in the early-stage entrepreneurship ecosystem.”

Each of the six companies in the first cohort will receive $50,000 in capital plus hands-on training, mentoring, and curriculum designed specifically to help women become more successful in building their businesses and raising follow-on capital.

The inaugural class includes:

Bookalokal
Bookalokal is a marketplace for food entrepreneurs to list their services available for sale (out of their home or at their restaurant’s chef’s table) and to connect with customers looking for a unique dining experience.

Champio
Champio is a platform on which a company’s employees compete to share the best/most relevant social media posts about the business.

HealthyMe
HealthyMe platform design has five key elements to address the non- compliance issue and patients’ lack of resources to effectively manage their disease on a daily basis, the key problems of patients who have chronic disease.

KiteReaders
KiteReaders designs, develops and distributes e-books and apps for children ages 3 to 8.

Smart Monitor
SmartMonitor created SmartWatch®, an intelligent wristwatch that continuously monitors movement, developed for people prone to epilepsy and seizure disorders.

Wondermento
Wondermento is building a new way to track your dog’s activity and to know what they are up to at all times digitally and through their hardware design.

These women will receive mentorship from first-class business executives, including the Prosper Capital team:

  • Dr. Mary Jo Gorman, Prosper Capital Lead Managing Partner, Founder and CEO of Advanced ICU Care
  • Maxine Clark, Prosper Capital Managing Partner, Founder and former Chief Executive Bear, Build-A-Bear Workshop
  • Carol Matthews, Prosper Capital Managing Partner, Founder of CDM Fantasy Sports and Co-owner of River City Internet Group, VP Operations at LockerDome
  • Jennifer Ehlen, Prosper Capital Managing Partner, Founder of Prosper Women Entrepreneurs, Vice President at Thompson Street Capital Partners
  • Peter Finley, Prosper Capital Managing Partner, Former CFO at Observable Networks and Pulse Therapeutics, Co-founder, Thompson Street Capital Partners
  • Hal Gentry, Prosper Startup Accelerator Managing Partner, Founder of Gentry Systems and GridLogix, Founder and Director of SixThirty and Capital Innovators
  • Kasey Joyce Grelle, Prosper Startup Accelerator Venture Partner, Principal at Cultivation Capital

As a result of their participation in the 13-week accelerator program, the entrepreneurs will have a direct pipeline to follow-on funding as well as opportunities to pitch to business leaders and potential clients, and have face time with some of the most active venture capitalists and angel investors in the Midwest.

The inaugural class will run from January 20th to April 15th and will be housed in the T-REX startup co-working space in downtown St. Louis.

About Prosper Women Entrepreneurs

Prosper Women Entrepreneurs was created to address the entrepreneur gender gap in the St. Louis region. We help existing and aspiring women business owners navigate the entrepreneurship ecosystem through the Prosper Institute (501c3), and increase women entrepreneurs’ access to growth capital and the number of women investing in early-stage capital markets through Prosper Capital (LLC).