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Westchester County’s Element 46 Tech Accelerator Announces Members of New Cohort

Westchester County, New York (September 20, 2023) – Westchester County’s Element 46 Tech Accelerator Powered by Cela today announced the 11 companies who have been chosen to participate in this fall’s accelerator program. Each startup selected will experience a world-class accelerator program that features key curriculum, connections to entrepreneurs, investors and mentors and full-time support from the Element 46 staff. The program will culminate with a Demo Day in November 2023, where each participant will have the opportunity to pitch their venture to a room full of investors, technology experts, press representatives, government officials and other key contacts.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer said: “The Element 46 Tech Accelerator is a dynamic program designed to support cutting-edge tech entrepreneurs who are looking to grow their business in Westchester County. We are excited to welcome this dynamic group of startups into our accelerator program and learn more about each of their ventures.”

Westchester County Director of Economic Development, Bridget Gibbons, said: “We continue to see a highly competitive pool of tech startups applying to the Element 46 Tech Accelerator. The participants chosen for this cohort are innovative, motivated and invested in growing their ventures in Westchester County. We look forward to working alongside them over the coming weeks and witnessing their future successes.”

Westchester County Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Deborah Novick, said: “Tech-driven startups are a growing subset of Westchester’s entrepreneurial community. The diversity of these ventures reflects the broad interests of tech entrepreneurs and will be wonderful additions to the Element 46 community.”

Cela Innovation Co-Founder, John Lynn, said: “In this applicant pool, we saw the widest variety of technology types, as well as business stages – and it's reflected in the cohort itself. There are companies with web and mobile technologies, Seed-stage funding through Series A, and founders finding their place in the Westchester ecosystem through the program, as well as those emerging from within the County. We are proud to include four female CEOs and six female founders in the cohort. We're excited to see where we can take these companies by Demo Day, and the leadership roles they will play in developing the startup ecosystem here, as past cohorts have.”

Members of the fall 2023 Element 46 Tech Accelerator cohort include:

• Adro (Yonkers): Adro provides university-supported financial services for international students studying at American colleges. We deliver a one-stop, fit-for-purpose solution for managing their finances, paying tuition, and accessing student-curated services, like commonly-needed purchases.
• CheckRare (Hastings on Hudson): CheckRare is a leading web and learning platform focused on rare diseases. Our mission is to improve patient outcomes through awareness and education. We work with respected physicians, researchers, and rare disease experts to create content that reaches physicians and the rare disease community. We leverage our web platform and database of 500,000 physicians to sell pharmaceutical-sponsored marketing and educational programs that address specific rare disease challenges.
• FMR Wellness (Scarsdale): FMR Wellness offers customized online nutrition libraries for medical practices whose patients do not have access to a Registered Dietitian. While both practitioners and patients know the value nutrition education plays in both prevention and healing, many barriers, including financial, behavioral and time, prevent access to proper care. FMR Wellness offers a solution to all of these barriers.
• Jotto (Pleasantville): Jotto’s patent-pending technology invites residents to answer a prompt anytime inspiration strikes, then instantly summarizes these contributions into easily digestible reports, delivered to the administrator best suited to act on it.
• Latte (White Plains): Mentorship is crucial to career development, but difficult to access. Latte is an AI-driven platform that instantly connects users with career mentors.
• LifeStream Digital Innovations, LLC (Rye Brook): Our mission is to embrace individuality as our driving force, empowering people to harness their unique value through state-of-the-art technology. Our innovative platform revolutionizes the high school, college, and job application experience, streamlining an authentic, holistic evaluation process to improve and simplify the journey for all.
• Livdao (New Rochelle): We offer affordable, hassle-free furniture solutions. Partnered with local stores, we streamline renting for students, fostering sustainable and stylish living spaces, while empowering students to focus on their education and personal growth.
• Paypa Plane (Mamaroneck): Paypa Plane helps banks and enterprises create prime and enduring relationships with their business banking customers or direct clients through our proprietary Smart Payment Agreement™ technology. Smart Payment Agreements™ - regardless of the method of payment- mean payments are more safe, reliable, transparent, appropriate and fair. We believe that everyone's financial lives can be improved with Smart Payment Agreements™ - from the exchange of value with solo fruit sellers in local markets through to large, institutional insurance conglomerates.
• Picsello (Larchmont): With 9% US growth and 2.3 million globally, independent professional photographers face a common challenge of running a profitable business. Picsello’s holistic platform streamlines client communication, invoicing, pricing, and marketing, so photographers can be successful.
• Anodet (Hastings on Hudson): Anodet captures security and data analytics in multi-family dwellings by consolidating CCTV camera feeds into a single node and utilizing computer vision technology to analyze feeds in real-time. Our innovative solution offers actionable insights to building owners, property managers, and the Police Department all while safeguarding individual privacy.
• Westchester Therapy (Scarsdale): Finding the right therapist-client match is more difficult than it should be. At Westchester Therapy, we offer a better match process to help you get the clients you need right here in our local community.

Members of each Element 46 Tech Accelerator cohort are selected in a competitive, county-wide selection process. Up to 12 tech startups from across the County are selected for each program, and must feature committed founders with at least a prototype of their technology or tech-enabled product.  In the past, selected startups have additionally been investor-backed, grant-funded, and/or revenue-generating operations.

In the program, each founder is matched with hand-picked mentors who are leaders in technology, finance, business strategy, venture capital, marketing and other key areas. Participants also gain access to a world-class curriculum on fundraising, customer development, executive management, product iteration, branding, marketing and more. 

The Element 46 Tech Accelerator Powered by Cela runs for 10 weeks every spring and fall. This is the third cohort produced in partnership with Cela Innovation, experts in tech accelerator programming and operations.

To learn more about the Element 46 program, visit the Element 46 website.

About The Westchester County Office of Economic Development

The Westchester County Office of Economic Development works to improve the County’s economic well-being and quality of life. This includes a broad range of activities to attract, create and retain jobs, and to foster a resilient, pro-growth and inclusive economy. For more information, visit the Westchester Catalyst website.