Meet the Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders Class of 2022

Research shows Black-led businesses face ongoing systemic challenges, including inequitable access to funding, personal development and mentorship opportunities. These challenges pose greater barriers to entry and success for underrepresented founders in the startup community.

We launched the Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders cohort in 2020 to support racial equity in the startup ecosystem. Last year, we expanded our commitment by opening the Black Founders accelerator to Canadian startups. The accelerator provides the best of Google’s programs, products, people and technology to help Black-led startups scale and grow their businesses.

Back in June, we put a call out for startups to apply for the 2022 North American Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders cohort. Today, we’re excited to share the 12 exceptional North American startups joining our third Black Founders accelerator, including Beam.city DNA, Human Squad Inc. and Node App, three Canadian startups based in Toronto.

Learn more about the Black-led startups below:

• Beam.city DNA (Toronto, Ontario): A growth coordination AI Platform helping businesses maximize growth using ads, email and social.
• EdLight (Melrose, Massachusetts) Uses AI to better read, interpret and digitize handwritten student work, reducing misconceptions and increasing equity amongst students, teachers and families.
• HumanSquad (Toronto, Ontario): Simplifies the immigration and study abroad system by empowering immigrants everywhere with the resources, products and personalized support to immigrate conveniently and affordably.
• Innovare (Chicago, Illinois): An app that aggregates and displays data from a variety of systems to empower education leaders to make data-driven decisions that positively impact students and communities.
• Mozaic (Chicago, Illinois): An API-first global payment platform built for co-creators on any project, providing smart contracts that automate split income among creative teams.
• Node (Toronto, Ontario): A gig marketplace that allows small businesses to hire local influencers in their neighbourhood.
• Onramp (Oakland, California): A workforce development platform helping companies build more diverse candidate pipelines by providing them with a mechanism to invest in skills development for current and future candidates.
• Paerpay (Boston, Massachusetts): A contactless payment and loyalty experience for restaurants and their guests that doesn't require a new point of sale (POS) system.
• Smart Alto (Birmingham, Alabama): A conversational sales platform for local service providers, enabling them to set meetings with clients without cold calling.
• TurnSignl (Minneapolis, Minnesota): A mobile platform that provides real-time, on-demand legal guidance from an attorney to drivers, all while their camera records the interaction.
• WearWorks (Brooklyn, New York): Uses the skin as a communications channel to deliver information. Their product, Wayband, is a Haptic navigation app and wristband to guide users using vibration without visual or audio cues.
• XpressRun (Louisville, Kentucky): Provides same-day and next-day delivery at competitive rates for direct-to-consumer brands.

The Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders program is an intensive 10-week digital accelerator for high potential Seed to Series A tech startups based in North America.

The accelerator kicks off on September 13, and participants will receive mentorship, technical support and curriculum covering product design, machine learning, customer acquisition, and leadership development for founders.

Join us in welcoming the Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders class of 2022