Flywheel investing $90K in startups

Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub, a startup accelerator for early and mid-stage social-enterprise ventures, named five organizations – four led by minorities – to a cohort focused on products and services to help create a more sustainable community.

Under its SustainableCincy accelerator model, Flywheel is investing $40,000 in the companies with the help of donors and supporters, plus it will invest another $50,000 of in-kind programming, coaching and business services. 

The companies selected include:

• Intersect Agriculture. A process that creates protein-rich animal feed from black soldier fly larvae. The process also generates other byproducts that have market value in agriculture. 
• Uplift 5P. An enterprise software platform and services that enables companies leverage curated ESG insights to simplify, manage and scale the ESG value creation process. 
• Cleanup Collective. A community litter cleanup empowerment initiative, beginning with a stocked and specifically outfitted portable cart designed to bring neighborhoods together for safe and efficient litter pick up.
• Sprout. An e-commerce platform that provides highly personalized outdoor and indoor plant recommendations centered on users’ needs and what’s locally available.
• Armbruster Impact Management. Taking proven success in developing a major corporate social responsibility initiative to the next level with a repeatable process delivered in a scalable consultancy model. 

SustainableCincy is a nine-week entrepreneurial training program featuring weekly sessions covering business topics important to startup success. 

Each company is matched to a coaching team for additional support including connections to potential customers, business partners and capital. The program ends with a presentation on Nov. 16 at MadTree Brewing, where each company pitches to investors, potential partners and future supporters.

“This year’s cohort is truly amazing … each founder is wicked smart, nimble, creative, and has a great product or service,” said Laura Randall-Tepe, Flywheel executive director. “It’s an honor to be working with them to refine their business plans and help them get the pilots and relationships they need to attract new customers and capital.”

Sponsors of the 2022 SustainableCincy cohort are Donovan Energy, Electrada, Michelman, University of Cincinnati Center for Entrepreneurship, MadTree Brewing and Philanthropreneur™ Cohort. Other program supporters include the Haile Foundation, the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, United Way of Greater Cincinnati and the city of Cincinnati. Program partners are Cintrifuse, Alloy, Cincinnati 2030 District and Green Umbrella.