Two Kansas City tech startups selected for newly rebranded T-Mobile Accelerator

Innovative drone technology and smart apartment management solutions helped two Kansas City startups earn spots among the freshly launched T-Mobile Accelerator’s six-company cohort.

Blake Miller, Homebase

Aware Vehicles, led by PJ Piper, and Homebase, founded by Blake Miller, were announced Tuesday as members of the 2020 program, formerly the Sprint Accelerator.

The 90-day accelerator began earlier this month and culminates July 30 with a demo day. All programming is currently virtual because of COVID-19, but in-person sections of the accelerator could come at later dates depending on re-opening developments.

T-Mobile’s program runs concurrently with the DFA CoLAB Accelerator, which focuses on agtech and dairy product innovation. Click here for more on the DFA accelerator’s 2020 cohort.

The six companies selected for the T-Mobile Accelerator are expected to work directly with company leaders and other industry experts and mentors to develop and commercialize the startups’ disruptive emerging products, applications and solutions.

“We are committed to using our broad and deep nationwide 5G network to accelerate innovation and spur the development of new, transformative applications,” said Neville Ray, president of technology at T-Mobile. “Mentoring, collaborating with, and providing resources to these six promising companies is an important part of that mission.”

The 2020 cohort includes:

• Aware Vehicles (Kansas City, Missouri) — Developing autonomous mobile UAV platforms, cognitive remote sensing and advanced imaging, artificial intelligence for situational awareness, and solutions for asset inspection, precision agriculture, emergency response, defense, and communications.
• Homebase (Kansas City, Missouri) — Automated apartment management solution for improved resident engagement and increased revenue for owners.
• ORBI Prime (Santa Clara, California) — Live streaming NFL games from the players’ perspective. ORBI’s 360° 8K 60fps helmets for American Football plus real-time video processing AI offer unprecedented console game-like action captured from the players’ perspective for mesmerizing engagement of fans of all ages.
• Seerslab (Palo Alto, California) — Media technology company focusing on Vision AI and mobile AR — offering the ARGear platform for developers.
• Unmanned Life (London) — The world’s leading multi-award winning 5G AI for Autonomy company that has pioneered the ground-breaking concept of “Autonomy-as-a-Service,” deploying commercial-grade Autonomous intelligent connected and integrated teams of different types of drones and robots working together collaboratively for Industry 4.0 and Smart Cities.
• Zoi Meet (Rotterdam, Netherlands) — An award-winning (B2B) SaaS solution that uses Artificial Intelligence to turn Enterprise Communication into conversational insights to help business professionals save time while increasing productivity.

PJ Piper, Aware Vehicles

Homegrown Aware Vehicles was the only Kansas City member of the 2019 IgniteX Accelerator, and Hombase is a former participant in KCMO’s Innovation Partnership Program and one of Startland News’ Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2019.

Sprint opened the award-winning Sprint Accelerator in 2014 in Kansas City as a hub for corporate innovation and entrepreneurial engagement. The accelerator space is used to deliver year-round programming, including mentor engagement, STEM programs, entrepreneurial community collaboration, and community coworking space.

Since its inception, the accelerator has worked with 52 startups, which have collectively raised more than $45 million with two successful exits since participating in the program. Seventy-seven percent of the alumni companies are still in business today.

Rebranding to the “T-Mobile Accelerator” follows the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint earlier this year.

“#5GforAll is like an operating system for the wireless future – a platform for innovation on which creators can build a diverse ecosystem of 5G products and services.” We couldn’t agree more – eager to see what our 2020 cohort creates! https://t.co/TZWK73R2i1

— T-Mobile Accelerator (@TMobileAccel) May 19, 2020