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Adauris, a Vancouver-based startup that helps digital publications convert their articles into high-quality audio, has been selected for Morgan Stanely’s prestigious accelerator program, the Inclusive Ventures Lab. The company is one of just 23 businesses chosen from across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, from a pool of more than 7,900 applicants.
The Lab is a five-month, in-house accelerator program designed for underrepresented founders of tech startups in the post-seed to Series A funding round stage. Programming begins in October and runs through February, and culminates in a showcase presentation and demo day to the investor community, potential business partners, and customers.
Adauris was founded by three recent university graduates: Logan Underwood, Tina Haertel, and Varun Sharma, who all hail from Vancouver. Its product allows media brands to create custom narration by adding just one line of code to their site, with written articles being converted instantly into audio. Adauris offers analytics to identify areas of engagement and drop-off points by listeners, and its post-production effects make the narration sound similar to a podcast.
“The Morgan Stanley accelerator program is a huge vote of confidence in Adauris and our mission,” Sharma told Vancouver Tech Journal. “We are excited to have the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with some of the brightest minds in the industry and the ability to tap into Morgan Stanley's wide network. We are confident that this program will help us accelerate our growth and mission of enabling publishers, newsletters, marketing teams, and content creators to seamlessly convert written content into high-quality audio, driving distribution and engagement for them.”
The Inclusive Ventures Lab has been running in various iterations since 2017, in order to address inequalities in funding of underrepresented founders. Morgan Stanley calculates that over USD $4 trillion is left on the table in unrealized returns from underfunding companies led by marginalized individuals.
“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, head of the Inclusive Ventures Group for the Americas.
Adauris is no stranger to being chosen for high-profile programs. Last year, it was selected for Google’s Cloud Accelerator Canada, and Underwood also took the software through the NEXT 26 initiative in late 2019.
The news of joining the Global Inclusive Ventures Lab is Aduaris’ second announcement within a week. Last Wednesday, it unveiled its new partnership with Grist: an award-winning publication with two million monthly readers.