New ed-tech accelerator announces its first four participants

The Butler Accelerator for Education and Workforce Innovation this week announced the four companies—including one Indiana-based business—that have been selected for its new accelerator program and will each receive a $100,000 investment.

Accelerator partners Butler University, Indianapolis-based TechPoint and Wisconsin-based gener8tor, first announced the new program late last year, with the intention of offering the 12-week accelerator twice per year. The first session kicked off in late March, but organizers did not announce the selected participants until now.

The participating companies, each of which receives a $100,000 investment from Butler:

• Integrate Tech Inc., which does business as Integrate School. Founded in 2015 and led by CEO Kevin Celisca, the Bloomington-based company offers an online lesson-planning tool for teachers.
• HMMP LLC, which does business as Awesome People Leaders. The company, which is based in the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield, Minnesota, offers an online leadership training program. Heather Polivka is the company’s CEO.
• ImagiLabs AB, which is based in Stockholm, Sweden, and also has a presence in New York City. Imagi offers a platform for teaching the coding language Python to students in grades 3-9. The company was founded in 2018 and is led by CEO Dora Palfi.
• Trees Technology Co., which is based in San Luis Obispo, California, and was founded in 2019. The Trees student success and engagement platform offers college students personalized recommendations for resources and activities. The company’s CEO is Jonny White.

Accelerator organizers said they received about 200 applications from across the U.S. and chose the four based on their growth potential and readiness for investment.

The accelerator operates as a hybrid program, with activities taking place at Butler; at the 16 Tech Innovation District just west of downtown Indianapolis; and remotely.

The inaugural cohort of the accelerator wraps up in June, with a showcase event at Butler in which all four companies will deliver pitches to investors. The event, which is set to take place from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. June 13 in the Reilly Room at Butler’s Atherton Union, is open to the public. Interested attendees can register here.

And the accelerator is already accepting applications for its next session, which runs Sept. 23 through Dec. 20. The application deadline for that cohort is July 15 and the application portal can be found here.