San Francisco’s KQED(FM) is teaming up with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to create a “startup accelerator” for media entrepreneurs.
To be called Matter Ventures, the venture will be managed by program producer Public Radio Exchange.
A release explains, “The intensive, four-month acceleration program is designed for media startups with multi-disciplinary teams who have early-stage prototypes, such as participatory platforms, mobile applications, B2B media services and content production engines.”
After running a shark tank gauntlet, Matter Ventures will select five startups in four separate classes across a two year period. Each startup will receive $50,000 and space in a trendy San Francisco district.
KQED and the Knight Foundation each put in $1.25 million. Ideally, the release explains, “Matter will invest in entrepreneurs who show high potential to create media ventures that make a meaningful, positive impact on society while pursuing a sustainable, scalable, profitable business model.”
Matter Ventures CEO and Partner Corey Ford said: “The institutions that create meaningful media today seem like they’ve been around forever. But they were built from scratch by risk takers who started with an experiment and a vision for how they could impact the world through media. Matter is where today’s aspiring entrepreneurs can build the meaningful media institutions of tomorrow.”
