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Open Call
The Founder Fellowship is returning for a third program year. Newlab, in collaboration with the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC)’s Venture Access NYC initiative, will be supporting a cohort of 15 climate tech founders from underrepresented backgrounds with the resources they need to scale their companies.
Newlab’s next Founder Fellowship cohort will mainly engage companies from the mobility, energy and materials sectors, but will also consider other companies whose technological solutions can be applied to the fight against climate change. The program consists of a series of skills-building workshops, inspiring fireside chats with business leaders, as well as one-on-one mentoring sessions to support founders with their specific challenges. Founders benefit from a one-year membership at Newlab Brooklyn, as well as introductions to investors for current or future fundraising rounds.
Venture Access NYC is an NYCEDC initiative building a more inclusive tech startup ecosystem in New York City by bringing together investors, founders, and industry leaders.
Newlab is also partnering with Bank of America, whose contribution will enable us to deliver a program through Fall 2024. With Bank of America’s focus on transformative technology and technology enabled companies, combined with local advisory expertise and global reach, the program is well positioned to further scale these companies' growth in a meaningful way.
The selection committee is comprised of the following representatives:
Applications are open now through Tuesday, December 5th 2023 and the program activities will start in March of 2024.
Newlab’s Founder Fellowship will provide sponsored Newlab memberships and tailored founder support to twenty-eight companies led by founders from underrepresented backgrounds to support diversity and inclusiveness in race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, thought, culture, and economic experience. Each company will be awarded a 12-month Flex II membership (valid for two individuals), which offers access to Newlab’s 84,000 square foot space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Newlab’s extensive network, and resources that support business growth, including:
Newlab collaborates with and invests alongside top-tier funds with deep domain expertise—with an investor and partner network of over 400 organizations, including AlleyCorp, Google X, and New York Angels. Newlab frequently connects member companies with corporate and civic partners for business development opportunities and offers pilot opportunities through our Applied Innovation Studios.
With a peer community of 200+ companies scaling transformative technology, Newlab fosters an environment of cross-functional collaboration and knowledge-sharing, with members regularly collaborating on new products. Newlab also helps members navigate legal, marketing, fundraising, and offers skills-building events and workshops.
Newlab provides extensive facilities for prototyping and product realization. Members have 24-hour access and each shop contains state-of-the-art equipment designed to facilitate the product development workflow—from idea to design to a working prototype. Onsite prototyping resources include 3D printing, CNC milling, wood and metal shops, casting and finishing, textiles, electronics, and more.
We encourage early-stage companies founded by entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds that are working on urban tech solutions to apply. Examples of urban tech solutions include transformative technologies applied to Climate Change, Energy, Circular Economy, GovTech, Public Health, Safety, Mobility, Transportation, Agriculture, Water, Infrastructure, and Accessibility.
Newlab creates the conditions for world-changing ideas to become real-world solutions. Through its community of startups, applied innovation programming, physical infrastructure, and direct investment, Newlab helps commercialize and scale the critical technologies needed to decarbonize the economy.
Today, Newlab includes more than 1000 entrepreneurs, partnerships with forward-thinking corporate and civic entities, and a network of active investors—all working together to scale hard tech. To date, Newlab has supported its 300+ member companies in raising over $2B in capital from 260 venture capital firms, with over $1.8B of successful exits and a collective valuation of over $5B.
New York City Economic Development Corporation is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization that creates shared prosperity across New York City. Our work is organized around four main areas of focus—investing in neighborhoods to address long-standing community needs, building a more sustainable city to meet the challenges of climate change, creating workforce development opportunities to help New Yorkers succeed in 21st century industries, and advancing the growth of both startups and established companies to ensure New York City’s competitive edge.
Bank of America is one of the world’s leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. Bank of America is focused on building financial security and wealth across diverse communities through a comprehensive approach that includes delivering products and services that meet the needs of all clients, and investing resources to support our communities and the issues that affect them.
