Kauffman Grant Supports Seed Accelerator Network

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri was awarded a $200,000 grant to TechStars, a network of regional start-up business accelerator programs, based in Boulder, Colorado. The TechStars network began on 31 January as part of a White House initiative encouraging entrepreneurship.

The Kauffman funding will be used by the TechStars network to build and manage a unified application processing and tracking system for seed accelerator programs across industries, many of which are already members of the TechStars network. The system will enable entrepreneurs to fill out and submit a single application form and share it with any of the participating organizations.

The system will also allow Kauffman and other researchers to track and analyze aggregate data relating to the demand for the programs as well as funding and business performance results for the companies that the accelerators fund over time.

The TechStars network is made up of TechStars’ own accelerator programs offering seed capital and guidance to start up enterprises in four U.S. cities, as well as affiliates in 12 other U.S. cities and four accelerator programs in Europe and Israel.

Read more: Kauffman Awards $500K Grant for More Women-Owned Startups

Photo: Charles Williams/Flickr

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