Founder Fellowship

The Founder Fellowship is an accelerator program designed to improve access to capital and networks for underrepresented founders across all tech-enabled sectors. As a signature program of NYCEDC's Venture for NYC (formally known as Venture Access NYC) initiative, the Fellowship connects diverse founders and funders with the capital, networks, and resources they need to launch, grow, and thrive in NYC. Venture for NYC is a suite of bold programs designed to make NYC the world’s leading and most inclusive innovation ecosystem.

Selected teams are placed in Founder Fellow cohorts led by NYCEDC's program operators. All Fellow teams receive unique offerings including:

• Individualized work plans to identify key needs and interests
• Cohort convenings to discuss challenges and receive business administration support
• Connections to capital providers and potential collaborators
• Access to mentors and advisor networks

Since launching in 2022, Founder Fellowship alumni have gone on to raise $170 million in follow-on capital, with their companies achieving combined valuations of over $1 billion.

View the 2026 Founder Fellowship participants, and sign up to be notified when applications open for the 2027 cohort. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about Venture Access NYC, email [email protected].

The 2026 Founder Fellowship will include the following four program partners, each operating a cohort of the program:

• Chloe Capital, a movement-driven venture capital firm investing in seed-stage companies through a gender and diversity lens, with a focus on climate, health, and workforce tech solutions.
• Company Ventures, an NYC-based seed-stage venture firm offering a zero-equity, mentor-led program designed to help founders fundraise more successfully.
• Newlab, a venture platform for critical technology startups transforming core industrial sectors, helping startups commercialize faster by aligning infrastructure, projects, and capital in strategic geographies.
• Visible Hands, is a pre-seed venture capital firm that funds and empowers overlooked founders launching high-growth startups.

NYCEDC's investment in the Founder Fellowship program has catalyzed nearly $2 million in dilutive and non-dilutive capital commitments from its private sector partners to be invested across tech startups.

Each Fellow team can consist of up to two founders of a tech or tech-enabled startup, with at least one founder residing within New York City. Companies can participate in up to one cohort at a time and may not participate in another accelerator during the program.

NYCEDC’s objective in creating the Founder Fellowship is to eliminate barriers to entry into the venture-backed community and to build a more inclusive tech ecosystem in NYC. To this end, NYCEDC strongly encourages Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and female founders to apply to the program. Fellowships will be awarded without regard to sex, gender, gender identity or gender expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, creed, partnership status, marital status, disability (including use of a service animal), race, color, national origin, alienage, citizenship status, military status, or any other class protected by City, State, or federal law.