https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/28/techstars-pre-seed-accelerator-fund-rising-stars/

Techstars, a startup accelerator born in Boulder, Colorado, has always been comfortable carving out niches. Unlike perhaps its closest competitor, Y Combinator, Techstars has gone the divide and conquer route of early stage startups support: instead of one massive batch, it has dozens of dedicated programs all over the world, ranging from Tel Aviv to Lagos to Oak-Ridge Knoxville.

While the geographic expansion has been aggressive, Techstars today announced another way it’s changing how it invests in startups. Rising Stars is a new pre-seed, pre-accelerator fund led by Saba Karim, head of Techstars startup pipeline, and Neal Sáles-Griffin, managing director of Techstars Chicago. Sticking with the Techstars ethos of building accelerators for overlooked geographies, Rising Stars is focused explicitly on backing underrepresented founders of color in the United States.