Morgan Stanley Expands Global Inclusive Ventures Lab with Largest Single Cohort of 23 Companies
12.9.2023 15:00:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) today announced the 2023 global cohort of the Inclusive Ventures Lab, with 23 companies selected across North America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), double the size of previous cohorts. The Lab offers a five-month in-house accelerator program for underrepresented founders of technology and technology-enabled startups in the post-seed to Series A funding round stage.
Chosen from over 7,900 applicants – more than three times last year’s pool – the selected startups represent a range of disruptive technologies in industries including healthcare, sustainable solutions, customer service, supply chain, recruiting and cybersecurity. Companies in the cohort receive a $250,000 investment (£250,000 in EMEA) from Morgan Stanley, as well as a variety of mentorship opportunities and business-growth resources from Morgan Stanley’s ecosystem of internal and external partners.
“We are proud to welcome the Lab’s largest cohort yet, marking our continued efforts to create a more equitable investment landscape for overlooked entrepreneurs worldwide,” said Selma Bueno, Global Head of the Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Group. “We are working to bridge the investment gap for underserved founders and to help correct documented market imbalances.”
The selected companies in the 2023 global cohort include the following:
- Ad Auris empowers marketing teams, publishers and content creators to repurpose written content into high-quality audio to reach an audience of listeners (Canada)
- Automated Architecture provides the technological infrastructure for a distributed robotic micro-factory network producing sustainable timber housing (UK)
- Bidrento offers an all-in-one solution for tenant experience and rental property management, helping to save time and money while also reducing CO2 emissions in real estate (Estonia)
- ByFusion provides a zero waste landfill diversion platform to transform non-recyclable plastic waste into reusable building materials (US)
- Cult Mia is an online fashion marketplace for sustainable and ethical brands from around the world (UK)
- DotLab develops breakthrough, actionable AI and ML technologies that lead to better health outcomes for women, starting with the diagnosis of endometriosis (US)
- eBanqo offers businesses an omnichannel platform to drive customer engagement and support (Nigeria)
- Encounter AI uses digital conversational ordering solutions to provide faster, friendlier and more efficient service to customers, restaurants and retailers (US)
- FLUIX Inc. enterprise AI software saves critical infrastructure on energy costs by integrating and optimizing facility systems (US)
- GigBridge is an online platform for construction companies to hire, onboard and pay their workforce all in one place (UK)
- Health in Her HUE connects Black women and women of color to culturally sensitive healthcare providers, health content and community support through a digital platform (US)
- Inicio AI delivers a virtually guided affordability assessment to help organizations save contact center costs while improving their end customer experience (UK)
- MEDIjobs is the first virtual recruiter for the healthcare industry, filling more than 55 types of positions at a rate five times faster than a human would (US)
- Nopalera is a collection of bath and body products powered by Mexico’s nopal cactus – an ancient symbol of Mexican culture (US)
- OKO offers affordable and inclusive crop insurance to farmers in emerging countries using satellite weather data and mobile payment technologies (Israel)
- Oppos provides robust cybersecurity and compliance security solutions for businesses, safeguarding data confidentiality, integrity, and availability (Canada)
- Partsimony enables organizations to build intelligent manufacturing supply chains that are more resilient and sustainable by unifying engineering and supply chain data (US)
- Ridelink leverages technology to enable small and medium-sized businesses to move cargo in Uganda and cross-border in six neighboring countries (Uganda)
- serviceMob is an AI & ML-powered customer service analytics platform that helps businesses optimize operations and improve the customer experience (US)
- Stak Mobility facilitates widespread urban electric vehicle adoption by merging space-saving vertical parking automation with fully integrated EV charging and a seamless mobile self-service experience (US)
- Tall Poppy is a digital security company protecting employees and public facing teams from online threats (US)
- Twipes uses bio-tech to produce flushable, biodegradable wet wipes that break down in water in three hours and biodegrade in landfills in seven days (US)
- Unfabled is a consumer health platform that delivers personalized solutions for women by matching them with health and wellness products (UK)
“We are thrilled to bring our unique accelerator program to more entrepreneurs globally, including our first participants from Africa and the Middle East,” said Sanghamitra Karra, EMEA Head of the Inclusive Ventures Group. “It is highly rewarding to work closely with founders to take their game-changing technologies to scale and help set them up for continued success.”
“By providing these promising startups with much-needed capital, a tailored curriculum and access to investors within and beyond the Firm’s far-reaching network, we aim to ensure that more underrepresented founders can succeed,” said LaToya Wilson, Americas Head of the Inclusive Ventures Group.
Programming will run through February 2024 and culminate in a global Demo Day, when participating companies will present to potential investors, business partners and customers.
The Inclusive Ventures Lab has won multiple Gold Anthem Awards, including Most Impactful Corporate Initiative in 2022 and Corporate Social Responsibility in 2023. The program was also listed as one of Global Finance’s Best Innovation Labs of 2023.
About the Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab
The Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab (MSIVL) is an intensive five-month in-house accelerator program designed to help further develop and scale startups, culminating in a showcase presentation and Demo Day to the investor community. Morgan Stanley launched MSIVL, formerly called the Multicultural Innovation Lab, in 2017 in order to address inequities in funding of underrepresented founders, which our research shows equals over four trillion dollars in unrealized returns.
About Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in 42 countries, the Firm’s employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230911548537/en/
Contact information
Media Relations: Carrie Hall, carrie.hall@morganstanley.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
VerSprite Launches Fork and Knife: AI-Driven Threat Modeling and Adversarial Testing Built for the Speed of Modern Software27.6.2026 00:28:00 EEST | Press release
VerSprite, a global leader in risk-based threat modeling and the firm behind the PASTA (Process for Attack Simulation and Threat Analysis) methodology, today announced the general availability of Fork (www.forktm.com), a continuous application threat modeling platform, alongside Knife, an AI-led, human-on-the-loop adversarial testing platform for web applications and web API endpoints. Together, the two products operationalize a new model for product security—one where applications are securely designed, continuously modeled, and actively tested as part of the build process itself. The launch addresses a problem every security leader knows but few tools have solved: threat modeling is essential, never more so than in an AI-driven era, yet it has remained slow, manual, and anchored to frameworks designed for a different threat landscape. The problem: threat modeling matters more than ever—and most tools are stuck in 2005 For two decades, application threat modeling has leaned heavily on
Venture Global Announces Closing of $1.5 Billion Senior Secured Vessel Financing Facility26.6.2026 23:30:00 EEST | Press release
Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE: VG) announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Venture Global Shipping Holdings, LLC (“VGSH”), has entered into a Credit and Guaranty Agreement providing for a senior secured term loan facility (the “Facility”) in an aggregate principal amount of up to $1,500,000,000. The Facility will mature on June 26, 2032. Deutsche Bank and ING acted as coordinating lead arrangers for the Facility. ING also serves as facility agent and security trustee. VGSH intends to use the net proceeds from the Facility for general corporate purposes, including to reimburse Venture Global LNG, Inc. for payments previously made by it or its affiliates in connection with the acquisition of nine LNG carriers, funding certain reserve accounts, and paying transaction fees and expenses. About Venture Global Venture Global is an American producer and exporter of low-cost U.S. liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) with over 100 MTPA of capacity in production, construction, or development. Ven
Capco Recognized by OpenAI for Innovation and Responsible AI Leadership26.6.2026 21:00:00 EEST | Press release
Global management and technology consultancy Capco, a Wipro company,has been recognized by OpenAI for both AI innovation and responsible AI leadership. Capco received the AI Governance & Risk Excellence Award at the recent OpenAI Partner Summit 2026 in San Francisco, highlighting Capco’s ability to deliver enterprise-grade AI outcomes in highly regulated environments. The award recognizes Capco’s expert advantage when helping financial services and energy organizations to scale AI with confidence, balancing innovation with strong governance to reduce risk, strengthen compliance and improve customer outcomes. This award follows Capco winning the OpenAI Codex Hackathon, where its UK AI Lab competed against more than 30 teams and over 100 participants from across the OpenAI partner ecosystem. Capco's winning entry Sentra – a consulting-led, AI-powered retail banking solution – uses digital twin technology to identify vulnerable customers and recommend explainable next-best actions for fro
Incyte Announces Positive CHMP Opinion for Opzelura ® (ruxolitinib) Cream for the Treatment of Adults with Moderate Atopic Dermatitis26.6.2026 14:30:00 EEST | Press release
Incyte (Nasdaq: INCY) today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has issued a positive opinion recommending the approval of Opzelura® (ruxolitinib) cream for the treatment of moderate atopic dermatitis (AD) in adult patients for whom topical corticosteroids (TCSs) and topical calcineurin inhibitors (TCIs) are inadequate or inappropriate. “AD is a chronic skin condition that can have a significant impact on daily life. The positive CHMP opinion for Opzelura marks meaningful progress toward bringing the first non-steroidal topical JAK treatment option to adults in Europe with moderate AD for whom standard topical therapies have failed,” said Lee Heeson, Executive Vice President and Head of Incyte International. “If approved by the European Commission, Opzelura could help address an important gap for patients who have limited treatment options when TCSs and TCIs are inadequate or inappropriate.” The positive CHMP o
Datroway ® Recommended for Approval in the EU by CHMP as First-Line Treatment for Patients with Metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer Who Are Not Candidates for Immunotherapy26.6.2026 14:00:00 EEST | Press release
Datroway® (datopotamab deruxtecan) has been recommended for approval in the European Union (EU) as monotherapy for the first-line treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) who are not candidates for PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor therapy. Datroway is a specifically engineered TROP2 directed DXd antibody drug conjugate (ADC) discovered by Daiichi Sankyo (TSE: 4568) and being jointly developed and commercialized by Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/NYSE: AZN). The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) based its positive opinion on results from the TROPION-Breast02phase 3 trial, which werepresented at the 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress and published in Annals of Oncology. The recommendation will now be reviewed by the European Commission, which has the authority to grant marketing authorizations for medicines in the EU. In TROPION-Breast02, Datroway demonstrated a
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom