Snap has unveiled the third class of startups slated to participate in Yellow — an accelerator program launched in May 2018 for entrepreneurs working at the intersection of content creation and technology. (The name of the accelerator is a nod to the company’s signature hue).
Snap has selected ten startups from across the globe, who, as part of their participation in the 14-week Yellow program, will also receive $150,000 in equity funding (in exchange, Snap will take a 6% stake in each startup), mentorship from industry veterans inside and outside of Snap, networking events with media luminaries, office space in Los Angeles, and commercial support — including, potentially, distribution on the flagship Snapchat app.
“Building from the momentum of our first two Yellow programs, this new class approaches mobile creativity through the diverse lenses of augmented reality, platforms, commerce, and media,” Yellow director Mike Su said in a statement. “Yet each company has a clear vision to bring their products to life.”
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This year’s participants (pictured above) hail from across the globe — from Oakland to London to Vilnus, Lithuania to Seoul to Mexico City. They are: conscious consumerism platform and podcast producer Brightly; sustainable fashion brand Charli Cohen; blue-collar professionals network Hardworkers; black entrepreneur and corporate leadership platform Mogul Millennial; webcomic company Nuggetverse (the creator of the Tubby Nugget character); how-to drawing app SketchAR; sticker API Stipop; video editor Trash; Veam, which allows people to initiate conversations via Airdrop; and interactive entertainment company Wabisabi Design.
Success stories from previous iterations of Yellow include: Stop, Breathe, And Think, which offers mindfulness content to help with anxiety, and which was subsequently acquired by the Meredith Corporation, and animation studio Toonstar, which subsequently raised a $2 million seed round led by Founders Fund and clocked 1.6 billion views across all platforms last year.
You can check out a video intro to the initiative, courtesy of Snapchat, below:
And here’s some more on each of the aforementioned participants of the latest iteration of Yellow, from the release:
- Brightly is a new platform featuring content, community, and brand recommendations that ignite change via conscious consumerism. We currently reach thousands of millennial + Gen Z women every day through our platform and new podcast, Good Together, which was featured by Apple as the #1 podcast for ethical shoppers. The 5-year-goal is for Brightly to be the main “source of truth” for people looking to live ethically & sustainably. (Oakland, CA)
- Charli Cohen is a fashion brand and ecosystem, fulfilling the need for a progressive, next-gen model within fashion and the wider creative industry. Their self-defined “NEXTWEAR” looks toward the future of fashion, aesthetically, in terms of technology and in terms of sustainability. (London, UK)
- Hardworkers is a professional digital community built exclusively for blue-collar workers. Construction workers, service industry professionals, gig economy workers and more have different needs from a career, expression, and visibility perspective. They are a hugely underserved market largely overlooked by the tech community that is more focused on products and innovation that may displace these workers. (Cambridge, MA)
- Mogul Millennial is a digital media platform for Black millennial entrepreneurs and corporate leaders. We curate and source smart content worldwide from minority industry leaders, career experts, entrepreneurs, and influencers. (Dallas, TX)
- Nuggetverse is the home of Tubby Nugget, a wholesome little character that’s grown to an audience of over 190K followers, and recently extended into commerce through a plush doll product extension.. Last month, they launched their first Tubby Nugget animated GIFs and hit over 80 million views within the first 24 hours. Those GIPHY stickers now have over 100 million views, and the team is excited to expand even more into the field of animation. In the long run, Nuggetverse seeks to build out a world of characters that engage and delight their audience, while encouraging empathetic values and wholesome good in the webcomic community. (Los Angeles, CA)
- SketchAR is an AI-based mobile app for teaching drawing using augmented reality. The long strategy is to build a very personalized platform for learning to draw, sharing creativity, and inspiration with the biggest art-community. (Vilnius, Lithuania)
- Stipop adds fun and empathy through stickers to enrich chat experiences. Our sticker API helps companies engage users, lead market trends, and bring immediate impact to their services. With 100,000+ quality stickers created by 5,000 global artists, we are improving the daily communication of millions of users around the world. (Seoul, South Korea)
- TRASH helps you make videos with one tap by using “cinema science” to put the knowledge of filmmaking in your pocket. TRASH looks at your clips to find what matters, assemble these moments, and distill them into the beginnings of a story for you. Then, because you’re the storyteller, you can tweak your video and share it with others for inspiration and collaboration on TRASH or to other platforms. Backed by the National Science Foundation, TRASH is a deep tech company building the future of video creation and collaboration software for short-form video creators. (Los Angeles, CA)
- Veam is the best way to make new friends around you. Teens today are already Airdropping memes to one another. Veam allows Airdrop to become a conversation starter by transitioning that interaction seamlessly to a persistent chat. (Seoul, South Korea)
- Wabisabi Design, Inc. is an interactive entertainment company founded by a group of experienced video game developers, mobile developers and visual effects artists. Our company lives at the intersection of new frameworks and technologies such as Social AR platforms or native AR frameworks and traditional game development. Our main focus has been the development of sophisticated AR Mini Games on social platforms, creating more than a dozen AR Mini Games for brands over the last year. Our vision is that brands, advertisers, and the social or native platforms (including their users) will demand new types of AR experiences beyond face filters, and gaming is where we think that the future will be. (Mexico City, Mexico)
