Creating the first diversity-focused accelerator

Chike Ukaegbu is an educator, social entrepreneur, investor, and humanitarian. Nigerian born but living in the U.S., he launched the Education and Entrepreneurship Leadership Fund in Nigeria in 2014. This fund has awarded academic scholarships and seed capital to youth entrepreneurs. He then founded the diversity-focused Startup52 in 2015 with a goal to provide better access to capital and other resources for founders from communities that are not among the ‘usual’ list. 

Startup52 is an early-stage accelerator based in New York City. As the first sole diversity-focused accelerator in NYC, Startup52 was founded by Chike Ukaegbu, (also a candidate in the presidential elections of his country), with the aim to identify and groom outstanding entrepreneurs in startup entrepreneurship and tech skill-set building, especially those from untapped and under-tapped communities in tech. With the main goal to increase diversity in tech, these communities include people of color, women, LGBTQIA, immigrants, disabled founders, seniors, veterans, among others.