Applications to XRC Labs’ Third Cohort are Live

New York, NY  September 16, 2016 – Today, XRC Labs announced that it is now accepting applications for its third cohort. The New York City-based accelerator is focused on unlocking the next generation of opportunities in the retail and consumer goods industries. Its third program will run from January 3, 2017 to April 10, 2017.

XRC Labs’ mission is to create an ecosystem of entrepreneurs and investorsable to rapidly design, launch, and iterate cutting edge retail and consumer technologies, products, and services.  XRC distinguishes itself by providing a unique wealth of influential sponsors, partners and advisors deeply rooted in the retail and consumer goods industries to its cohorts. XRC Labs sponsors include Best Buy, Reebok, TJX, Michael Kors, Intel, Thoughtworks, NRF, RiLA and Shoptalk, each of which plays active roles in the XRC Labs ecosystem.

In addition to offering courses, workshops, mentoring, VC-prep sessions, and a variety of other marketing and design-related services, XRC Labs invests capital in each of the ten startups to support their development. XRC Labs has decided to expand its program by extending each cohort session from 10 to 14 weeks, two of which will now continue after Demo Day to support the startups in actively raising funds.  

XRC’s applicants emerge from a pool of entrepreneurs and innovators with a passion for customer experiences, brands and retailing, and they compete to be among the 10 startups selected into the highly competitive program. The accelerator focuses on omnichannel retail, product development, and data science, exploring innovations that address the challenges and opportunities presented by customer loyalty, customer experience, geolocation, 3-D printing, crowdsourcing, personalization, consumer insights, the Internet of things and video analytics.

Pano Anthos, XRC Labs’ Founder and Managing Director, is looking forward to building on the momentum from the first and second cohort successes. “The 2016 Cohort Class was a dynamic mix of startups in the e-commerce, retail, design, interactive tech, 3D printing and smart materials sectors. We were not surprised by their rapid impact on the retail marketplace in so many arenas and we look forward to this next cohort class achieving similar success.”  

Entrepreneurs can apply for XRC Labs’ Cohort 3 via the F6S platform or at www.xrclabs.com.