NY-MORGAN-STANLEY
6.9.2022 17:42:37 CEST | Business Wire | Press release
Morgan Stanley today announced the eighth cohort of the Multicultural Innovation Lab. The in-house accelerator program for technology and technology-enabled startups in the post-seed to Series A funding round stage targets companies with multicultural or women founders, co-founders, CTOs or other C-suite members who are developing innovative solutions across sectors. Now in its sixth year and with 69 total participating companies to date, the program is expanding globally for the first time, with participating companies in both the US and in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
From September 2022 to February 2023, the founders—the majority of whom are women and ethnically diverse—and their companies will participate in a customized accelerator program designed to enhance their growth and development. Chosen from over 2,500 applications, these leaders will benefit from the close support of Morgan Stanley’s global ecosystem of internal and external partners, which will provide a variety of mentorship opportunities and business-growth resources. Through MCIL, Morgan Stanley also makes investments in these early-stage, high-growth startups.
“We are particularly excited to welcome our first global cohort, representing multicultural and women-led innovation in business around the world,” said Selma Bueno, Managing Director and Head of the Multicultural Client Strategy Group. “This new stage in MCIL’s development represents our continued efforts to create a more equitable investment landscape for women- and diverse-led startups and ensure that more overlooked entrepreneurs—and their communities—have the opportunity to succeed.”
The companies that have been selected for the Fall 2022 cohort include the following:
- Advocat is a legal software platform developed to streamline the process of creating and operationalizing legal documents.
- AMAKA Studio is a digital media platform connecting a global community of women sharing Pan-African stories.
- AuditMate is a provider of SaaS-driven vertical transportation maintenance and contract management services. The solution helps property managers with contract analysis, maintenance completion reporting, compliance management and more.
- Gentreo is a software solution helping families and caregivers affordably and easily prepare, plan and protect all they love with next generation estate planning.
- Here Here Market is an online marketplace for food enthusiasts to discover and buy specialty products from ‘chef-prenuers’ and small-batch artisans.
- imagi is an education tech company leveraging proprietary coding education tools to equip girls with essential technology skills and confidence.
- Kami is an AI-powered family support platform providing personalized access to a wide range of wellness consultants, as well as an expertly curated and comprehensive range of guides, articles and tips.
- Perse is a single data technology platform leveraging energy and carbon data from all meters in Britain to report and optimize the energy and carbon footprint for individuals, households and businesses.
- Physician 360 transforms community pharmacies into healthcare clinics by empowering them with access to a virtual care platform.
- Wearisma is a global enterprise SaaS influencer analytics platform helping large-scale companies to optimize marketing spend and to achieve communication objectives.
The Fall cohort will operate in a hybrid environment, using a combination of online video platforms and in-person events to facilitate the curriculum, enhance connectivity and foster community. The program will culminate in the eighth Multicultural Innovation Lab Showcase and Demo Day, when the 10 participating companies will present to potential investors, business partners and customers.
For the last two years, MCIL has been named one of the World’s Best Innovation Labs by Global Finance Magazine. The Lab continues to successfully increase access to capital for diverse entrepreneurs, as evidenced by resulting company acquisitions and additional funding rounds following participation in the program. Some notable examples include:
- Relationship intelligence platform Stimulus raised a $2.5 million seed round to grow partnerships and expand the team with engineering, data science and sales talent.
- Lillii RNB, an AI-powered fraud prevention and investigation SaaS solution for retailers, raised a $3 million seed round from co-leads Serena Ventures and Aperture Venture Capital to capitalize on sales opportunities and grow its partnership network.
- Event management software platform Five to Nine raised a $4.25 million seed round to expand its engineering capability, accelerate product development and grow the team.
About the Multicultural Innovation Lab
The Multicultural Innovation Lab (MCIL) is an intensive five-month in-house accelerator designed to help further develop and scale startups, culminating in a showcase presentation and Demo Day to the investor community. Morgan Stanley launched MCIL in 2017 in order to address inequities in funding of ethnically diverse- and women-led startups, which our research shows equals over four trillion dollars in unrealized returns.
The team is led by New York-based Selma Bueno, Managing Director and Global Head of the Multicultural Client Strategy Group, and London-based Sanghamitra Karra, Managing Director and EMEA Head of the Multicultural Client Strategy Group. Together, they have over 35 years of investment banking and risk management experience.
Listen to the Access & Opportunity with Carla Harris podcast on your platform of choice to learn about the players driving change among diverse entrepreneurs, the investor community and the world.
About Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in 41 countries, the Firm’s employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit https://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/20220906005822/en/
About Business Wire
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
U.S. Federal Court Permanently Bans 19 Online Sellers of Fake Urolithin A Supplements and Awards $5.3 Million in Damages to Timeline23.7.2026 16:27:00 CEST | Press release
Default judgment follows Timeline’s independent laboratory testing showing products sold under 19 online brands contained no detectable Urolithin A, or far less than advertised Timeline (Amazentis SA), the Swiss life-sciences company that pioneered the postbiotic ingredient Urolithin A and its branded form Mitopure®, together with its U.S. subsidiary Timeline Longevity, Inc., announced today that the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has granted the companies’ motion for default judgments and permanent injunctions against 19 online sellers found to have marketed and sold nutritional supplements falsely advertised as containing Urolithin A. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260722951066/en/ Timeline longevity supplement powered by Mitopure; proprietary, highly pure Urolithin A. The order, entered July 15, 2026 by Judge Myong J. Joun in Amazentis SA et al. v. The Partnerships and Unincorporated
TestMu AI Introduces the Source-to-Verdict Loop in Kane CLI, Carrying Every Requirement to a Ship Decision With Portable Proof23.7.2026 15:45:00 CEST | Press release
Kane CLI now takes a requirement all the way to a ship-or-hold verdict, designing the tests, running them in a real browser, and emitting an open .evidence proof pack that teammates, AI agents, and auditors can all verify, with no server or dashboard required TestMu AI (formerly LambdaTest), the world's first Agentic AI-powered Quality Engineering platform, introduced a source-to-verdict loop in Kane CLI, its natural-language testing tool. Building on Kane CLI's evolution from a browser automation tool, the loop carries a product requirement to a ship decision, writing the tests, running them in the local browser, collecting the proof, measuring coverage from what actually happened, and returning a verdict. As AI agents write, run, and fix tests, a green checkmark is no longer enough: a step that checks nothing passes, a test written against a spec that changed weeks ago passes, and an agent that says “done” without the click ever landing passes. Empty green and earned green are the sa
Norway’s health system adopts Wolters Kluwer UpToDate Enterprise Edition23.7.2026 15:30:00 CEST | Press release
Enterprise Clinical Decision Support solution available to 30,000 clinicians in more than 50 Norwegian hospitals Wolters Kluwer Health announced that Norway’s health system has renewed its adoption of UpToDate Enterprise Edition, a market-leading Clinical Decision Support (CDS) solution, for its nationwide health system which includes over 50 public hospitals and 11,000 beds in over 20 trusts. This extends a 15 year partnership with Helsebiblioteket, now part of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH). Helping clinicians on a national scale Kjell Tjensvoll, Team Leader for Helsebiblioteket said, ‘‘Providing frontline teams with easy access to the latest medical knowledge is vital in reducing unwarranted variation and improving patient care on a national scale. UpToDate Enterprise Edition enables this, and we are delighted to strengthen our relationship with Wolters Kluwer and provide continued support for clinicians across the country.’’ UpToDate Enterprise Edition was selected
Boyd Watterson Global Names John Creswell Global Chief Client Officer to Accelerate Global Growth and Client Engagement23.7.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press release
Veteran investment management executive will lead global sales, client engagement and marketing as Boyd Watterson Global continues expanding its global alternatives platform across real estate, infrastructure, and debt strategies. Boyd Watterson Global today announced the appointment of John Creswell as Global Chief Client Officer, a newly created senior leadership role that reflects the firm's continued investment in growth and its evolution into a leading global alternatives investment platform. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260722823117/en/ John Creswell has joined Boyd Watterson Global as Global Chief Client Officer, a newly created role overseeing global sales, client engagement and marketing across the U.S., Europe and APAC. In this role, Creswell will oversee global sales, client engagement and marketing efforts across the United States, Europe and APAC, helping investors access the firm's capabilitie
Trulioo Launches AI Agent to Resolve Beneficial Ownership Where Global Registries Fall Short23.7.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press release
Breakthrough AI agent reconstructs ownership for long-tail businesses and hard-to-reach jurisdictions while significantly increasing UBO coverage Trulioo, a global risk intelligence platform, today announced the UBO Discovery Agent, the newest layer in Trulioo's UBO Discovery capability inside its business risk and Know Your Business (KYB) verification workflow. AI is reshaping fraud, making it easier for bad actors to hide, and harder for companies to catch them. This makes the already tough job of verifying who actually owns a business even more difficult. Determining a business's ultimate beneficial owner is an ongoing, acute challenge for companies: registry coverage is inconsistent across countries, and even where registries exist, they typically record shareholders and directors of record (rather than the people actually in control). That data isn't simply outdated, it reflects a structural lag: ownership changes and time passes before the filing is made and processed, so a looku
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