Prosper Women Entrepreneurs Announces 2016 Spring Class

Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (PWE) announced the five women-led companies in their 2016 spring class this afternoon including companies from both coasts and Europe. The selected companies will participate in a three-month intensive designed specifically for women looking to grow their businesses.

Meeting for two days each week during the program at Downtown T-REX in St. Louis, they’ll have access to renowned mentors, resources and a custom curriculum. They’ll also receive a $50,000 capital investment.

According to Mary Jo Gorman, MD, MBA, Lead Managing Partner of PWE Startup Accelerator and Founder of Advanced ICU Care, the program, now a year old, is unique in their ability to offer continued monetary support once companies graduate.

“Multiple companies from our first two rounds of participants have already received follow-on funding,” she says. “We look forward to providing the same results for this new class of women business leaders.”

To be considered, companies must have a working product and preferably already have customers. Previous cohorts were selected from 665 applications representing 31 states and 41 countries. 

To date, PWE has graduated and invested in 11 companies through three classes, including Taptl, a company that developed the world’s first stand-alone transparent LCD, led by CEO Mary Wolff.

“PWE took my business to the next level,” says Wolff. “St. Louis is a fantastic place to grow a brand, offering a remarkable startup ecosystem with great energy, collaboration and support. Now, Taptl has office space in St. Louis because of the experience and backing we received from the PWE organization and mentors in the community.”
Meet the new companies here: 

Appticles

(Romania)
Appticles is a Software-as-a-Service platform that helps bloggers, publishers and other content creators to better reach and target their mobile audience by packaging their existing content into cross-platform mobile and tablet applications. Alexandra Anghel is the Co-Founder and CTO. 

Baloonr

(San Francisco, CA)
Baloonr is the only cloud-based app that alleviates the challenges that make ideation and creativity difficult in a team setting, Baloonr leverages the power of anonymity so employees can launch ideas without fear of failure or judgment, and allows for ideas to be recognized based on merit, not on the popularity of the idea creator or an internal pecking order.

As a result, teams produce a higher quantity and quality of ideas and information. Amanda Greenberg, based in San Francisco, CA., is the Co-Founder and CEO of Baloonr.

Boosterville

(Indianapolis, IN)
Boosterville helps brick and mortar businesses to acquire new customers and continue to build loyalty with existing customers with first-to-market technology. Beginning with K-12 schools, Boosterville enables organizations to partner with local merchants for fundraising needs using the intentional purchases of non-profit supporters at real-world or online merchants.

Pam Cooper is the Co-Founder of Boosterville.

Investment Pod

(Washington D.C.)
Investment POD is the first multi-strategy digital wealth management platform in the marketplace, delivering both asset and strategy diversification. Investment POD is a B2B FinTech firm delivering a white labeled, customized and fully integrated digital platform to financial institutions.

Jacqueline Ko Matthews is the Founder and CEO.

KiraKira

(San Francisco, CA)
KiraKira Academy offers online classes to teach girls how to use 3D design software and 3D printers. Students can sell their designs in an online store to earn money for college tuition. Co-founder and CEO Suz Somersall is a serial entrepreneur at the intersection of arts and technology.

The current cohort will conclude with Demo Day on April 6, 2016, when the business owners pitch to venture capitalists, angel investors and potential clients. Prosper Women Entrepreneurs is now accepting applications for the 2016 Fall Startup Accelerator class beginning in August 2016.

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