Lot42<\/a>, a premium ready-to-drink range that aims to elevate and expand the pre-made cocktail occasion. Created by co-founders, life partners and drinks veterans Chris MacDonald and Dale Milliken, Lot42 is focused on fostering positive, open-minded experiences that encourage consumers to be their best selves, free of judgment.<\/p>\nWith a broader and more global focus, DV will target a wider range of founders and geographies in year two, with added emphasis on recruiting more women and LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs into the Pre-Accelerator and its wider portfolio.<\/p>\n
During the year, DV has strengthened the Pre-Accelerator team, appointing Kamuti Kiteme as Managing Director, Inclusive Investments, and Kamilah Mahon as Inclusion & Diversity Programme Manager. Kamuti has over 25 years\u2019 experience building early-stage ventures and leading Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. Kamuti and Kamilah will work alongside Ara Carvallo, Portfolio & I&D Director, who will continue to lead the Pre-Accelerator outside North America.<\/p>\n
Frank Lampen, CEO, Distill Ventures, said: <\/strong>\u201cWe\u2019re incredibly proud of the work we\u2019ve done over the past year, identifying and partnering with highly impressive entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities, but we recognize that this is just the beginning. Our focus has been, and will continue to be, helping founders unlock seed funding, and we look forward to working together to achieve further growth.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nEugene Khabensky, Vice President Global Ventures, Diageo, commented:<\/strong> \u201cIn order to grow a more diverse drinks industry, it is vital that all entrepreneurs have access to the same opportunities.\u00a0This Pre-Accelerator programme\u00a0supports our commitments to championing inclusion and diversity in everything that we do and we\u2019re proud to be\u00a0working with\u00a0Distill Ventures to\u00a0expand the programme to\u00a0identify more\u00a0innovative drinks brands\u00a0of the future.\u201d<\/em> \n\u00a0<\/strong> \nKamuti Kiteme, Managing Director, Inclusive Investment Programmes, Distill Ventures, added<\/strong>: \u201cThe Pre-Accelerator remains distinct in its approach; we\u2019ve taken our proven support model for founders in drinks and extended it to early-stage companies to offer hands-on guidance, along with funding at all stages of growth. Paramount to the DV model is its commitment to letting founders lead, and the Pre-Accelerator was designed to maintain flexibility along each founder\u2019s journey without tying them into longer-term equity agreements. What we create today will help us achieve the ambitious goals we aspire to achieve tomorrow.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nThe Pre-Accelerator offers an initial investment of up to \u00a3350,000\/$500,000 and six to twelve months of bespoke acceleration support to prospective founders. Afterwards, the company can seek further investment from Distill Ventures and Diageo, or from other capital sources or strategic partners without restriction. Applications to join the Pre-Accelerator are open from now to September 30 for prospective founders in the United States, and from now until December 1 for founders globally. The 2023 programme is slated to begin in February and March, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since launching its Pre-Accelerator Programme in July, 2021, Distill Ventures (‘DV’), the world\u2019s first independent drinks accelerator devoted to building and scaling the drinks brands of the future, has invested its initial goal of $5 million (\u00a34.1 million) to entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities. Today DV announces its aim to invest an additional $5 million in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":21999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":""},"categories":[3585,25,3822,3501],"tags":[22120,22122,22119,22121],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
DV: Pre-Accelerator 1 Year On - OpenBusinessCouncil Directory<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n