On February 28th, 2019, at Bespoke in San Francisco, 500 Startups Batch 24 celebrated the completion of our 4-month accelerator program with Demo Day. The invite-only event for active and accredited investors brought together the largest crowd yet! We were joined by 500+ investors and LPs for a sold-out event.

Batch 24 is made up of 40% female founders and 50% have a Black, Mixed, or Latinx founder. There were also two tracks in this cohort—blockchain and an automotive track in partnership with General Motors. The 18 companies span across a wide variety of verticals from Aerospace to Virtual Reality and join us from countries like Chile, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Ghana and the UK which falls in line with our fund’s investment strategy and vision in aspiring to be the most global Silicon Valley VC.

500 Founder and CEO Christine Tsai kicked the afternoon off with an update on the 500 portfolio. Over the past 8 years, 500’s portfolio has grown to more than 2,200 investments around the world, 5,000 founders, across 74 countries—almost 40% of the world! Just last year, we welcomed 7 new Unicorns into our portfolio, including Talkdesk, a Batch 3 company. This brings our total unicorn count to 10. Additionally, we were recently ranked #1 by PitchBook as 2018’s most active global investor by VC deal count. The Seed Accelerator program has been integral to our investment thesis, and we’re excited to see earlier companies grow and mature, such as Talkdesk, Mayvenn, Shippo, RapidAPI, Blavity, Kin, and BigFinite.
Tsai also announced that 500 has promoted Tim Chae to General Partner at 500 HQ. Tim first joined the 500 family as a founder with his company, PostRocket, was part of Batch 3 in 2011. A few years later, he was asked to join 500 as an EIR for the accelerator program. In 2015, Tim launched and led 500 Kimchi, a $15M fund dedicated to investing in South Korean startups. Now Tim will be leading our SF-based investment team, Seed Accelerator program, and work closely with all of our thematic fund partners around the globe.

The expo hall at Demo Day included an interactive VR display, superfood quilts, and a peek into the future of flight—private air travel. Check below for a complete look at all the companies of Batch 24, or visit our YouTube channel to watch their Demo Day pitches, or visit Slideshare to review the decks. 

500 Startups Batch 24:

• Alba: A Santiago, Chile-based mobile marketplace for babysitters in emerging markets.
• Back Office: A Palm Beach, Florida-based financial software provider focused on streamlining personal bookkeeping.
• BlockVigil: A San Francisco-based platform for building and scaling blockchain applications.
• Cambridgene: A Cambridge-based developer of clinical-genomic software for personalizing cancer therapy in hospitals.
• Celer Network: A platform for building and scaling decentralized applications.
• Chipper Cash: Send, Receive & Request Money With No Added Charges to anyone in Africa.
• Crowdz: Headquartered in Sunnyvale, the blockchain-based B2B marketplace builds digitized supply chains.
• HAMAMA: A San Francisco-based provider of microgreen kits for growing healthy food at home.
• IOTW: A Hong Kong-based IoT-connected cryptocurrency mining platform.
• Kura Tech: A San Francisco-based developer of augmented reality glasses with micro-display and variable focus.
• Memoir Health: A Boston-based behavioral health startup providing physical and virtual mental wellness and substance use services.
• MessageCube: Headquartered in Sunnyvale, the company is building an integration for people to discuss and purchase shared experiences over chat.
• Ovation: A Provo, Utah-based online portal for restaurant reviews meant to help businesses measure customer experience.
• Pilleve: A Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based startup using data to help care providers lower the costs associated with opioid addiction.
• Savion: A Livermore-based aviation company bringing green, long-range private jets to the middle class.
• SnapShyft: Headquartered in Indianapolis, the startup provides an on-demand labor marketplace focused on the food and beverage industry.
• UTRUST: A Zurich-based cryptocurrency payments platform that offers buyers protection, instant transactions and more.
• Zeuss Technologies: Headquartered in Palo Alto, the blockchain-based anti-money-laundering platform targets cash-intensive industries.

Want to get in touch with one of these founders? Get introduced here.

Finally, if you have what it takes to be a part of our next batch, make sure to apply for Batch 25 today. Applications are now open!