LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Long Beach Accelerator™ (LBA), a first of its kind public-private partnership in the city, will host the entrepreneurial community Friday for a reception connecting potential participant innovators, funders, partners and more. The Accelerator - founded by international investment firm Sunstone Management, the City of Long Beach, and California State University Long Beach (CSULB) Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship - expects to welcome its first cohort of entrepreneurs early in 2020.
LBA will prepare early-stage tech startups to successfully secure funding as well as provide valuable resources, including physical space for participating entrepreneurs to develop capacity, technical assistance with seed-round funding, and a network of investors to identify and finance opportunities with capacity to scale.
“This event highlights the incredible amount of City investment in the technology infrastructure, talent production, and quality of life that makes Long Beach the city of choice for technology workers, investors, and entrepreneurs,” Long Beach Economic Development Director John Keisler stated.
"Sunstone welcomes stakeholders from all industries to the innovative ecosystem we are building through the Long Beach Accelerator," commented founding partner John Shen. “As a member of our city's Economic Development Commission, I’m thrilled to continue expanding Sunstone’s partnerships and initiatives with new entrepreneurs and programs.”
This event is just the latest development in the growing Long Beach entrepreneurial ecosystem in attracting top talent and additional investment to the region. Sunstone recently partnered with CSULB to underwrite the university’s prestigious startup business competition - a program for young innovators to develop, submit and pitch business plans to judges in order to compete for seed funding and additional financial resources - now known as the Sunstone Innovation Challenge at CSULB.
Sunstone additionally continues to build LBA’s investment network. LBA Sunstone Fund I and Seraph Long Beach I L.P. Fund, a partnership of Sunstone and leading structural angel investment firm Seraph Group, are two funds already established to facilitate the growth of startups participating in the Accelerator as well as seed round startup projects in Long Beach.
Wade Martin, director of CSULB's Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, commented: “The Accelerator and all of us at CSULB share the enthusiasm for and investment in the area’s innovation sector, as well as the local and regional economic growth that comes with such an influx of talent to our community.”
“We are excited to continue building our partnerships with the City, Sunstone, and the Long Beach Accelerator following the success of our joint effort at SoCalBio’s recent 21st Annual Conference,” added Southern California Biomedical Council President (SoCalBio) and CEO Ahmed Enany, one of the newest additions to Long Beach's innovation community. “As the area's largest platform for investment opportunities in biomedical, healthcare and digital health, we look forward to escalating our industries’ economic impact here.”
About Sunstone Management
Sunstone Management, with subsidiary Sunstone Venture Capital Fund, is a diversified private capital management and investment firm offering comprehensive wealth management solutions to high net worth clients worldwide, in particular U.S. new-immigrant families. Focusing on investments in U.S. based small businesses and lower middle markets, its offerings are carefully structured to meet targeted investor goals ranging from short term senior debt products to longer term, equity, growth capital, and venture capital investment strategies.