In the middle of a pandemic that has shut offices and changed the way companies deal with customers and employees, Comcast’s program investing in promising startups is focusing on companies that address the future of work, interactive and immersive experiences.
The Comcast NBCUniversal Lift Labs Accelerator, powered by Techstars has also addressed diversity, with half of the companies in the program this year led by females and more than half having racial and/or ethnic diversity.
One company, Introvoke provides white label technology that powers virtual connections, hybrid live events and networking in a branded experience.
Another is Seshie, a marketplace of expert guides offering live and virtual team building experiences for organizations to increase employee morale and build company culture. WorkChew is a marketplace connecting mobile and remote works to workspaces in restaurants and hotels.
Also in the program is AfroLandTV, an OTT streaming media platform for Pan-African TV shows and movies.
“As the global pandemic brought the world to a halt, we put an even greater emphasis on the Future of Work…not only for the problems these companies are solving today, but also the problems they will continue to solve in the post-pandemic future,” said KJ Sighn, managing director at Techstars. “Some of these companies are helping us bring the same high-quality experience of our cornerstone in-person program to this year's virtual accelerator and we are excited to be early customers.”
The program received applications from companies from more than 40 countries. One of the companies selected was from the U.K. and the rest were from the U.S.
Part of the program involves mentoring and making presentations. Those will be conducted virtually this year. The program’s Demo Day will take place Dec. 3.
The other companies in the program are:
Beam Health Group, which empowers healthcare professionals and health systems with premium telehealth service to provide quality, convenient care to patients.
Cast, which creates automated audio-visual reports with embedded calls to action that help customers understand complex concepts and generate high-value actions.
Covatic, which is developing a mobile SDK that empowers media companies to deliver in-app experiences by identifying when, where and how individuals can engage with content without exposing personal data.
Glow Up Games, which develops and publishes mobile games for underrepresented gamers and gathers data on them to encourage more diverse characters and storylines in the gaming industry.
Kidas offers a service that uses AI to protect children from cyber-bullying and online predators by alerting parents about potentially dangerous activities in their child’s digital life.
Percepta uses AI and computer vision technology to analyze security camera feeds and alert employees of shoplifting in real time.
Showcase Jobs is a video-first hiring platform that uses asynchronous video to help companies streamline the recruitment process by eliminating repetitive interviews.
