Newark Venture Partners (NVP), a venture capital (VC) firm focused on attracting sophisticated technologists and entrepreneurs to Newark, to catalyze the local technology ecosystem, has showcased its inaugural accelerator class at a demonstration day at the Prudential Center.
Nine companies, selected from a pool of 650 applicants to the NVP Labs inaugural class, took the stage in the arena to present distinctive successes and future plans developed during an immersive 12-week program in the NVP Labs accelerator.
“In 2007, Audible came to Newark to embrace the city’s renaissance as a defining principle for the company,” said Don Katz, founder and CEO of Audible and founder of NVP.
“Newark Venture Partners was founded to be a seedbed for a new generation of young growth companies in Newark and to accelerate the comeback of a great American city by tethering Newark to the elements of the economy that are growing sustainable jobs and taxable revenue.
“The NVP accelerator founders benefit from a focused curriculum and a network built to help companies develop and scale led by NVP’s Limited Partners, including Audible. At Audible we encourage our employees to be mentors for the accelerator start-ups, and have seen a significant collaboration develop.”
Demo Day for the inaugural accelerator class underscores NVP’s commitment to attracting best-in-class start-ups to Newark to grow the local technology ecosystem on behalf of an urban comeback story.
NVP’s anchor limited partners include Audible, Dun & Bradstreet and Prudential Financial, as well as noted individual investors. NVP aims to connect Newark to the burgeoning NYC-area startup and innovation hub and to the sectors of the economy generating real job growth and wealth through technology-driven innovation.
Housed rent-free in a state-of-the-art 25,000-square-foot tech space with 10 gigabit fiber-to-the-desktop, and downstairs from Audible’s global headquarters, the NVP Labs Founders benefited from a focused curriculum and a network built to help companies develop and scale.
The network is spearheaded by NVP’s corporate Limited Partners who opened up their employee rosters to be mentors for the accelerator start-ups, and supported by an on-site team of in-residence experts, including developers, designers, business associates, and sales consultants.
“We’re excited by the quality of the nine companies in our inaugural accelerator class, and proud of the founders who all chose to be pioneers by making the City of Newark home for their companies,” added NVP managing partner Dan Borok.
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