Business Wire

NY-MORGAN-STANLEY

Share
Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab Hosts Demo Day for Largest, Most Global Cohort of Startups

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) today is hosting its largest global Demo Day, with 23 participating companies from North America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Cohort companies will pitch over 300 investors, as well as potential business partners and customers.

Over the past five months, the Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab has supported its ninth cohort of technology-enabled startups in the seed to Series A funding round stage. The intensive accelerator program provides each company a $250,000 investment (£250,000 in EMEA) from Morgan Stanley, as well as a variety of mentorship opportunities and business-growth resources.

“At a time when startups are facing a challenging funding environment, it is more critical than ever to provide a platform for founders to attract investment and scale their innovative solutions,” said Selma Bueno, Global Head of the Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Group. “Today’s Demo Day showcases the Inclusive Ventures Lab’s largest and most global cohort to date, underscoring our mission to advance a more equitable investment landscape worldwide.”

Companies presenting at Demo Day represent a range of industries including healthcare, customer service, supply chain, recruiting and cybersecurity – with AI and sustainable solutions as cross-cutting themes. Cohort members include: Adauris (Canada), Automated Architecture (UK), Bidrento (Estonia), ByFusion (US), Cult Mia (UK), DotLab (US), eBanqo (Nigeria), Encounter AI (US), FLUIX (US), GigBridge (UK), Health in Her HUE (US), Inicio AI (UK), MEDIjobs (US), Nopalera (US), OKO (Israel), Oppos (Canada), Partsimony (US), Ridelink (Uganda), serviceMob (US), Stak Mobility (US), Tall Poppy (US), Twipes (US) and Unfabled (UK). Learn more about the companies here.

Founded in 2017, the Lab has hosted 92 companies, with a combined valuation of $923MM. Companies have raised $217MM in funding following their participation in the Lab.

Applications for the next Lab cohort will be open from February 7 - March 15, 2024. The tenth cohort will include up to 25 companies, with emphasis on businesses led by overlooked founders providing sustainability-focused products or services. Morgan Stanley will be holding pitch competitions in select cities in North America and EMEA to identify potential Lab participants over the coming months. The next Lab cohort is scheduled to launch in September.

About the Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab

The Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab (MSIVL) is an intensive five-month in-house accelerator program designed to help further develop and scale startups, culminating in a showcase presentation and Demo Day to the investor community. Morgan Stanley launched MSIVL, formerly called the Multicultural Innovation Lab, in 2017 in order to address inequities in funding of startup founders, which our research shows equals over four trillion dollars in unrealized returns.

About Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in 42 countries, the Firm’s employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.

To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240206741043/en/

About Business Wire

Business Wire
Business Wire
101 California Street, 20th Floor
CA 94111 San Francisco

http://businesswire.com
DK

Subscribe to releases from Business Wire

Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Latest releases from Business Wire

Ant International Partners with Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol to Expand AI Capabilities12.1.2026 02:15:00 CET | Press release

Ant International, a leading global payment, digitisation, and financial technology provider, is collaborating on the launch of Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a new open standard for agentic commerce that works across the entire shopping journey — from discovery and buying to post-purchase support. UCP establishes a common language for agents and systems to operate together across consumer surfaces, businesses, and payment providers to enable commerce. So instead of requiring unique connections for every individual agent, UCP enables all agents to interact easily. UCP is built to work across verticals and is compatible with existing industry protocols like Agent2Agent (A2A), Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), and Model Context Protocol (MCP). “For agentic commerce to scale, it’s critical for the industry to align on a common set of standards. We are proud to have Ant International endorse the Universal Commerce Protocol as the foundation for that future,” said Ashish Gupta, VP

Torq Secures $140M Series D at $1.2B Valuation to Lead the AI SOC and Agentic AI Era11.1.2026 17:59:00 CET | Press release

Fueled by Massive Customer Adoption of AI Agents, Torq Scales the World’s First True AI SOC Platform and Accelerates Expansion into the U.S. Federal Market Torq, the established Agentic AI security operations pioneer, today announced it has closed a massive $140 million Series D funding round, propelling its valuation to $1.2 billion and total funding to $332M. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112510774/en/ Led by Merlin Ventures—a leading cybersecurity fund renowned for its deep access to the U.S. commercial and Public Sector markets—with participation from all existing investors, including Evolution Equity Partners, Notable Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Ventures Partners, and Greenfield Partners, this capital injection is a definitive investment in the future of security. Torq is driving the industry’s critical shift: the complete transformation of the Security Operations Center (SOC) through

Andersen udvider sine kompetencer med tilføjelsen af Scimitar9.1.2026 21:44:00 CET | Pressemeddelelse

Andersen Consulting har indgået en samarbejdsaftale med Scimitar, der er et firma med fokus på at accelerere innovation i biovidenskabsbranchen. Scimitar, der har hovedkvarter i USA, et førende konsulenthus inden for strategieksekvering for biovidenskabsbranchen. Virksomheden er specialiseret i design af driftsmodeller, digital transformation og organisatorisk forandring. Scimitar samarbejder med medicinal- og biotech-virksomheder om at accelerere innovation, styrke den driftsmæssige eksekvering og sikre compliance gennem hele produkters livscyklus. Deres praktiske og samarbejdsorienterede tilgang sikrer løsninger, der ikke blot er formålstjenlige, men også skalerbare. "Virksomheder inden for biovidenskabsbranchen befinder sig i en tid med hurtige videnskabelige fremskridt, stigende regulatorisk kompleksitet og et voksende behov for operationel agilitet, samtidig med at de holdes op mod de højeste standarder for patientsikkerhed og dataintegritet," udtaler Ramy Khalil, CEO i Scimitar.

Biocytogen and Acepodia Expand Collaboration Through Option-based Evaluation Framework for First-in-Class Bispecific and Dual-Payload ADCs (BsAD2C)9.1.2026 13:00:00 CET | Press release

Expanded collaboration builds on Acepodia and Biocytogen’s recent co-development efforts to evaluate selected bispecific antibody and dual-payload ADC programs Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (Biocytogen, SSE: 688796; HKEX: 02315) and Acepodia (6976:TT), today announced that the companies have entered into an option and license agreement designed to enable the structured evaluation of bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (BsADC) programs to further advance the development of dual-payload bispecific antibody-drug conjugates (BsAD2Cs). The agreement grants Acepodia an option to obtain an exclusive worldwide license from Biocytogen for two BsADC programs. Under the terms of the agreement, Biocytogen is eligible to receive an upfront option fee and, upon Acepodia’s exercise of the option, additional payments including option exercise fees, development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments, as well as royalties on future product sales. The financial terms of the agreem

Blockstream Capital Partners Announces Strategic Acquisition of Derivatives Trading Team from Numeus Group, Leveraging Strategic Partnership with Komainu9.1.2026 11:08:00 CET | Press release

Blockstream Capital Partners (“BCP”) today announced that it has entered into a strategic agreement to acquire a division within Numeus Group’s digital asset trading and investment business. The transaction includes the absorption of select Bitcoin focused trading strategies with a focus on yield generation as well as a ten person derivatives trading team led by Chief Investment Officer Deepak Gulati, a specialist in volatility and derivatives markets. Deepak Gulati, appointed Co-Chief Investment Officer of Blockstream Capital Management alongside Rodrigo Rodriguez, previously served as Global Head of Proprietary Trading at JPMorgan, before founding Argentiere Capital, a multibillion-dollar volatility-focused hedge fund. With a thesis that derivatives would drive Bitcoin and digital asset market maturity, he co-founded Numeus Group in 2021 to develop institutional-grade trading, risk management and market-structure capabilities. Komainu, an existing BCP strategic investment, has played

In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.

Visit our pressroom
World GlobeA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.HiddenA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.Eye