Sputnik ATX Announces Its Summer 2020 Cohort Companies Sputnik’s Most Diverse and Competitive Cohort to Date

AUSTIN, TX – August 27, 2020 – Sputnik ATX, an Austin startup accelerator focused on growth companies, today announced the selection of its summer 2020 cohort. The cohort consists of startups that are poised to solve a multitude of business and societal problems, including two companies with missions related to racial equality. Out of more than 1,100 companies that started the application process, Sputnik ATX chose the companies that showed the greatest potential for rapid growth and unicorn status -- reaching a valuation of over $1 billion. Of note, all seven companies are led by founders of underrepresented genders and ethnicities.

“Even during the pandemic we received a record breaking number of applicants this round,” said Oksana Malyhseva, CEO and Managing Partner of Sputnik ATX. “As a result, we had our work cut out for us in picking the best companies. This group of founders not only has unicorn potential but is also our most diverse cohort to date, asserting that talent can and does come from anywhere.”

This selection marks Sputnik’s sixth cohort of startup companies since its founding in 2017. The Summer 2020 cohort companies are:

• Check will end thousands of senseless deaths during traffic stops. This app facilitates safe interactions between police and motorists over mobile devices, protecting historically discriminated minorities and officers alike, taking stress out of the traffic stop for all.
• Fundr produces high performing seed portfolios of diverse founders for investors by taking bias out of the investment process via its highly evolved AI platform. Fundr also helps founders and investors with monthly reports, chat rooms and shared dashboards.
• Growth Channel uses AI to generate affordable digital marketing plans that outperform costly work from top agencies, providing SMBs data-driven, detailed tactical recommendations and strategies that were previously only affordable to big business.
• InstaCEI moves highway and horizontal construction project data into the digital age helping engineers and field staff immediately share data, moving mountains of manual work to a geospatial application saving the industry billions of dollars from waste and errors.
• Nitex allows anyone to launch a fashion brand, compressing the global fashion supply chain into an easy to use interface. Nitex combines design, testing, sourcing and delivery in one simple application, dramatically lowering costs for fashion labels of any size, large or small.
• Productable helps companies exponentially increase innovation ROI through software that accelerates innovation management, cuts through corporate politics, empowers high potential bets, identifies what works, and quickly puts resources where they can deliver.

Sputnik ATX has also chosen one company founded by UT Austin students to participate in its Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) Program. EIR companies receive $10,000 in funding and are invited to sit in on cohort classes for the duration of the three-month Sputnik curriculum.

• Bonsai improves customer service response times and accuracy with a plug-in AI tool that automates back-end platforms as it learns from responses, documentation, help videos and FAQs to generate improved responses in real time.

"Despite unprecedented circumstances these past several months we continue to be thrilled with the quality of startups that apply to our program,” said Joe Merrill, general partner at Sputnik ATX. “Our mission is to find the absolute best startup founders possible, so it is no surprise that they are as diverse as our great state of Texas."

Companies accepted to the Sputnik ATX program receive three months of structured mentoring, a desk at the Sputnik offices for the duration of the program, and $100,000 in seed funding. At the end of the program cohort companies participate in a virtual Demo Day where they present to a room of investors. The next application round will open in November 2020. To be eligible to apply, startups are required to have a viable product, have at least one paying customer, and be located within a 300-mile radius of Austin or willing to relocate if accepted.

About Sputnik ATX Sputnik ATX is an accelerator in Austin, TX that combines capital with training and experience to prepare seed-stage businesses for future rounds of funding. Their formula: (Nerds + Investment + Training + Mentoring) Community = Success

Sputnik ATX was named after the first satellite to enter Earth’s orbit, an event that touched off a new era of innovation and competition that still influences the world today. The Russian word ‘Sputnik’ translates to ‘partner,’ which describes this accelerator’s intention: to partner with and mentor chosen startups. The accelerator was born out of a venture fund founded by Dr. Oksana Malysheva and Joe Merrill.

After investing in companies around the world, the entrepreneurial atmosphere of Austin inspired Malysheva and Merrill to consider the city as a new home for their efforts. Sputnik ATX launched on Oct. 4, 2017, the 60th anniversary of the Sputnik-1 satellite launch.

Media Contact: Coltrin & Associates, Inc. (on behalf of Sputnik ATX) McKenzie Cloutier 212-221-1616 mckenzie_cloutier@coltrin.com