gener8tor and ECMC Group Partner to Launch Nationally-Ranked Accelerator for Startups
OnRamp Education & Workforce Innovation Accelerator Welcomes Third Cohort
MINNEAPOLIS - - Nationally-ranked startup accelerator gener8tor and education-focused nonprofit ECMC Group are excited to announce the five participants selected for the 2023 OnRamp Education & Workforce Innovation Accelerator: KidVestors, Divercity, immersionED, SparkLearn, and Loper.
gener8tor and ECMC Group’s Education Impact Fund recruited the accelerator’s latest cohort from a highly competitive and diverse global applicant pool of over 500 applicants. These five companies are each driving impactful innovation within the education and workforce sectors, spanning financial literacy software for underserved youth, immersive and gamified learning, data-driven skills training and DEI technologies for employers and postsecondary pathway discovery tools.
The OnRamp Education & Workforce Innovation program was launched in 2020 as a partnership between gener8tor and ECMC Group’s Education Impact Fund to seed innovation and impact within the sector, while also democratizing access to capital and connections for startups.
“While there has been much recognition of the need to remove inherent bias within our education and workforce systems, more action is required,” said Joe Watt, VP of Impact Investing at ECMC Group. “We see OnRamp as an ideal lever for supporting very early stage companies as they nurture and grow their innovative work to solve some of our world’s most pernicious problems. It is our honor to work and invest with such a mission-driven, ambitious, and diverse group of entrepreneurs with the ultimate goal of helping advance the edtech and workforce ecosystem.”
As part of the OnRamp Education & Workforce Innovation Accelerator, each startup will receive a $100,000 investment and will work with gener8tor and ECMC Group during the three-month program. Founders will also receive individualized coaching and mentorship from industry leaders, investors and subject matter experts. The program culminates in a showcase celebration at the OnRamp Education & Workforce Innovation Conference and a two-week series of investor meetings in June.
Started by gener8tor & ECMC Group in 2020, the annual OnRamp Education & Workforce Innovation Conference brings together the industry’s leading corporations, investors and startups. Both the conference and accelerator highlight innovations disrupting education and the future of work, the leaders making such innovations possible and how new technologies and business models can reinvent the industry. This year’s OnRamp Education & Workforce Innovation Conference will be held June 20-21, 2023, at Allianz Field in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.
In preparation for the 2023 OnRamp cohort, gener8tor has also appointed Moses Tut as the program’s new managing director.
“Seeing gener8tor’s unbiased commitment to invest across race, place and gender is one of the reasons I was drawn to the company, as I share the same fervor for making entrepreneurship more accessible,” said Moses Tut, managing director of the OnRamp Education & Workforce Innovation Accelerator. “I am especially excited to work with these five startups because of their commitment to creating a better, more equitable future within the education and workforce sectors.”
Moses Tut comes to gener8tor with a breadth of experience and immense history as he and his family – originally from South Sudan – sought refuge in the U.S. in 1999 when the Sudanese civil war erupted. While attending Augustana College in Sioux Falls, Tut started his entrepreneurial career with his own urban clothing brand Ambitious Legendary Movement (ALM) and soon after founded the nonprofit Conscious Youth Solutions, which bridges the gap of advanced workforce training for young adults entering the job market. Along with being a nonprofit executive, fashion designer, serial entrepreneur and humanitarian, Tut moved into the entertainment and management industry where he began managing models Nyakim Gatwech and Lual Mayen.
Prior to gener8tor, Tut was head of partnerships at Impact Market and the program manager of Draper University’s five-week accelerator program. Over the course of a decade, Tut has spoken at more than 100 universities, conferences and meetings to educate and encourage others to understand DEI, cultural competency and entrepreneurship. Along with being trained as a peace facilitator by the United States Institute of Peace, he has organized more than eight South Sudan Humanitarian Crisis Forums and has been a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum since 2016.
To learn more about the program, go to onrampeducation.com.
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The five startups listed below were selected to participate in and receive investment from the OnRamp Education + Workforce Innovation Accelerator investing program.
Courtney Pettway | courtney@thekidvestors.com | kidvestors.co
KidVestors is a financial education curriculum software for underserved K-12th students.
Chuka Ikokwu | chuka@divercity.io | divercity.io/
Divercity.io is a full-stack DEI technology platform that helps companies measure and track their workforce and applicant diversity and helps them improve it by connecting them with qualified diverse talent.
Chad Wilson | cwilson@immersioned.org | immersioned.org/
immersionED builds immersive historical learning video game modules that not only increase engagement with historical content, but also provide students with active learning experiences ideal for the development of key transferable skills such as creative problem solving and critical thinking.
John Feser | jfeser@sparklearn.com | sparklearn.com/
SparkLearn is an adaptive microlearning platform for businesses or organizations that enables learners to get quick and easy access to training materials and performance support tools.
Sam Bernstein | sam@getloper.com | getloper.com/
Loper is a mobile platform guiding learners along a personalized educational path.
