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GET Cities Launches Second Chicago Seed Founder Cohort with Miami Kick-Off hosted by World Business Chicago, Focused on Closing Funding Gap for Marginalized Entrepreneurs

GET Cities and their Tech Equity Working Group (TEWG) have announced the launch of their second #GETSeed Founder Cohort. The cohort aims to raise funds, build connections, and amplify the brands of women, trans, and nonbinary founded startups to close the gap in seed founder funding and encourage direct investment in marginalized entrepreneurs. This year will be kicked off with a roadshow to Miami in partnership with World Business Chicago.

CHICAGO – April 17, 2023 — GET (Gender Equality in Tech) Cities’ Tech Equity Working Group is proud to announce the launch of their second #GETSeed Founder Cohort. The #GETSeed Founder Cohort, which was piloted last year and co-designed by the first cohort, aims to raise funds, build connections and amplify the brands of women, trans and nonbinary founded startups to close the gap in seed founder funding and encourage direct investment in marginalized entrepreneurs. The new cohort includes ten innovative startups: AEGIS, blip energy, SMART Charts, StoryBolt, Kadeya, MOMlogics, Bridge to College, Globowl, Science on Call, Here Here Market.

GET Cities’ inaugural cohort, which included startups such as Cyber Popup, Mycocycle, Neopenda, and Wave Therapeutics, was a success, with nine pre-seed and seed level Chicago-based founders raising $8,881,000 in funding during their time in the cohort.
“It was extremely helpful to learn from a group of women at all stages and to be exposed to more and more of the ecosystem. The connections were very valuable for me to understand the tech community better and how to navigate more efficiently. I have many connections tee’d up as a result and I am excited to see how they unfold.” – Shelley Gupta, Founder and CEO of BāKIT Box
GET Cities focuses on seed founders due to their unique stage in the funding process. Women already only get 2.2% of VC funding, and we’ve found there’s a particular, leverageable gap in resources and assistance for founders who are struggling to advance from seed to Series A stage. According to P33, another TEWG member, companies founded by marginalized people are typically raising $1.2 million in the pre-seed and seed stages; comparatively, companies with all-male teams typically raise closer to $4.8 million in those same stages. We see this as an opportunity to make a noticeable impact.
“GET Cities always works where we believe we can make the most impact. By rallying around these innovative founders and companies, we believe we can make a real dent in the gap in funding in Chicago while also rallying other organizations to look at their funding patterns and shift toward bringing in more equitable practices.” – Elle Ramel, GET Cities Chicago Director To kick off the second cohort, World Business Chicago, a longstanding member of GET Cities’ Tech Equity Working Group, will be hosting a roadshow to Miami, similar to last years’ roadshow in San Francisco where the last cohort raised over $100k. The roadshow will be a 2-day event in and around the premiere tech conference eMerge Americas aimed at providing founders with warm introductions to venture capitalists, potential funding opportunities, and takeaways from networking sessions. This years’ Entrepreneur Exchange will also include a delegation of GET Cities Miami and World Business Chicago founders as well.
“When a founder is exposed to a new market like Miami, she is exposed to new sources of capital and clients, but also fresh sources for collaboration, networking, and new avenues to expand her business. Miami is especially exciting for this first entrepreneur exchange of 2023 due to the innovation taking place in the city supplemented by the support of a local GET Cities team.” – Nicole McCarthy, Director of Innovation & Venture Strategy at World Business Chicago.
GET Cities and TEWG’s second Seed Founder Cohort represents a continued commitment to closing the gap in funding and connection-building opportunities for marginalized founders. With the help of partnerships such as World Business Chicago, GET Cities will continue to work towards creating resilient programs that are poised to scale for multiplied impact in service of ecosystem-building and funding access for marginalized founders.

About GET Cities & The Tech Equity Working Group

GET (Gender Equality in Tech) Cities, led by SecondMuse Foundation and Break Through Tech in partnership with Pivotal Ventures, is an initiative designed to accelerate the representation and leadership of women, transgender, and nonbinary people in tech through the development of inclusive tech hubs across the United States. Currently, GET Cities has established local tech hubs in three U.S. cities: Chicago, Miami and D.C.

Tech Equity Working Group (TEWG), powered by GET Cities Chicago, is a rolling cohort of accelerators, incubators, funds, and mission-aligned ecosystem supporters designing city-wide solutions and collective infrastructure to address gender and racial inequities for Chicago-based tech founders.  

To learn more or get involved with GET Cities, visit their website at https://www.getcities.org.

About WBC

World Business Chicago serves a critical role in driving inclusive and equitable recovery throughout the city’s 77 neighborhoods, focused on high growth sectors: transportation, distribution, & logistics; manufacturing; healthcare & life sciences, and our local innovation, startup, & venture ecosystem. As the City of Chicago’s economic development agency, World Business Chicago leads corporate attraction & retention, workforce & talent, community impact, and promotion of Chicago as a leading global city. Supported by a council of 300+ local leaders, World Business Chicago’s portfolio of innovation & venture programs include: the Chicago Venture Summit series, Startup Chicago, ThinkChicago, and Venture Engine with the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition (ISTC).

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Notes for the Editor: Please address any and all press inquiries to Gabrielle LeVota, who can be reached at 310.497.6267. Email inquiries can be sent directly to glevota@crinkerland.com and more info can be found at https://www.getcities.org