Two more teams are entering the Iowa Startup Accelerator and its 2017 cohort, according to a news release.
According to the release, the two companies entering the Iowa Startup Accelerator are from Missouri and New York.
Noviqu—a Columbia, Mo. based company—a health and safety training application.
Funeral Direct—a New York City based company—is a website where families can find, book and review funeral homes in their area.
In total there are seven companies in the 2017 Iowa Startup Accelerator cohort; There were six in the 2016 cohort.
Molly Monk, accelerator program manager, said Noviqu and Funeral Direct were both very coachable.
Monk said Noviqu was a finalist for the summer batch of companies and that Funeral Direct was started after the CEO had a complicated and stressful experience trying to book his grandfathers funeral.
“We are very familiar with different mentoring they would be needing,” Monk said of Noviqu. “Funeral Direct is a really energetic team with a good amount of experience. And we really haven’t seen a lot of innovation in that industry and we think it’s something they could do very well. There’s a lot of opportunity with that.”
Both companies will begin the year-long program with a full week of orientation programming to provide insight into what the Iowa Startup Accelerator offers. The teams will be introduced to Agile and strategic planning during the orientation week.
NewBoCo—the Cedar Rapids-based nonprofit powering the Iowa Startup Accelerator—uses Agile to align organizational strategy with performance.
Novique and Funeral Direct makeup the third and final round of investments for the Iowa Startup Accelerator’s 2017 cohort. Companies from the Spring, Summer and Fall will have the opportunity to pitch their company at Launch Day on Dec. 7 at the Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids.
Previous coverage
Iowa Startup Accelerator announces its summer cohort
Iowa Startup Accelerator changes program from 90 day to full year program