This accelerator for startups focused on ‘financial resilience’ is coming to Philly

The Points of Light Civic Accelerator (CivicX), the Atlanta-based accelerator for companies working in “financial resilience and economic mobility,” is looking for companies to join its Fall 2018 cohort, which will be making a stop in Philly this November.

The bootcamp-style program was founded in 2012 with support from the PwC Charitable Foundation and the Starbucks Foundation and in partnership with Washington, D.C.-based Village Capital.

At the end of the 10-week mentorship and training program, the top two companies selected through VilCap’s peer-review model will receive $50,000 investments — framed as revenue-sharing agreements for nonprofits and convertible debt notes for for-profits.

(We’ve seen the model in action before, during VilCap’s and Ben Franklin Technology Partner’s fintech accelerator.)

This cohort will task companies with finding ways to “improve financial outcomes, spur economic mobility and prepare families for financial success.” Companies will receive curriculum from “industry experts on revenue generation, funding strategies, and customer acquisition” in three sessions happening in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Chicago. The local session will be held Nov. 12 through 15.

For Digitability’s Michele McKeone, an alum of the program, other entrepreneurs in the accelerator were key to the value she drew for her company, which helps students with cognitive disabilities learn social and workplace skills.

“I was able to work with, and learn from, truly incredible people,” McKeone said in an email. “The program is very much peer-driven. The members of our cohort were deeply connected to the issues we address through our ventures. As a result, the workshopping, insight and feedback was authentic and intensely valuable.”

Companies must apply by Aug. 24.