Summer Cohort of 10 Startups Join Lair East Labs Accelerator

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Lair East Labs (“LEL”), a New York City-based investment firm that runs an accelerator program for early-stage startups, picked the first day of summer to announce the 10 members of their summer 2023 cohort.

These founders will benefit from a four-month program of coaching, mentoring, workshops and presentations from successful entrepreneurs, CEOs and startup founders. They also will receive capital funding of up to $150,000. Sunstone Management, LEL’s capital partner, is participating in the program for nine of the 10 cohort companies.

“This impressive group of founders represent a wide spectrum of industries, with a great emphasis on tech-driven approaches,” said Michelle Wang, Lair East Labs co-founder and partner. “We’re looking forward to a great journey together getting to know the founders and helping them develop their solutions to the challenges they face.”

In its first five years of operation, Lair East Labs has already reached the ranks of the top 100 accelerators worldwide, according to Crunchbase. Portfolio companies have raised $45 million in that time after completing the accelerator program.

Earlier this year, LEL and Sunstone Management signed a five-year partnership agreement to support startup entrepreneurs through the accelerator program.

Here are the 10 companies in the summer 2023 program and a bit about what they do.

• Frich Money is the first social finance app to allow GenZ to take control of personal finances by setting spending goals using gamification and social media elements.
• IndicatorLab is an AI-driven investment information aggregator presenting historical data points relevant to the current market condition.
• Parrots Inc. is a healthtech and medical devices company with an AI-enabled personal assistant platform for people with physical, mental and communication challenges.
• StageKeep is a tech company creating collaborative tools to allow creatives to manage, visualize and plan performances digitally.
• Magic Kids is a game-based education app using augmented reality, voice recognition and object detection technologies teaching children while entertaining them at the same time.
• Firstly helps colleges and nonprofits launch, scale and monitor mentorship programs.
• Upmarket offers user segmentation data that drives business operations and marketing communications for SaaS (Software as a Service) companies.
• Movig centralizes and automates management for content creators, from finding brands to pitch to getting paid, and for brands to find content creators easily.
• Inked Sports, Inc. is the new platform for college athletes in the influencer marketing arena that facilitates streamlined, NCAA-compliant deals for both athletes and marketers.
• Kanda Industries is a business-to-business clean-tech firm providing proprietary natural fiber-based reinforcement technology, primarily for the automotive and motorsport industries.

For more information about Lair East Labs, click here.

About Lair East Labs

Lair East Labs is a startup accelerator based in New York that empowers founders to expand internationally. In the first five years of operation, our portfolio companies have raised over $45 million in funding after completing the accelerator. Our program combines the best of two worlds – learn from alumni founders of top Silicon Valley-style accelerators and gain access to a network of mentors and investors with extensive experience navigating the U.S. and Asian markets. In 2019, Lair East Labs was recognized as one of the “Top 100 Accelerators Worldwide” by Crunchbase.

About Sunstone Management

Sunstone Management is a diversified private capital management firm with headquarters in Southern California that provides a range of early-stage venture capital, real estate, and fixed income to qualified and accredited investors. The firm delivers new and exciting options for economic growth through innovative public-private partnerships, making use of its unique experience across government, education, and private sectors. Identified by Financial Times as one of America’s Fastest Growing Companies three years in a row. Connect with Sunstone Management at:

LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Crunchbase | Pitchbook

Contacts

Jennifer Huang

Sunstone Management

(562) 732-0617

Jennifer.huang@sunstoneinvestment.com