Nex Cubed

San Francisco pre-seed accelerator uplifting underrepresented founders with up to $125K direct investment

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Updated: Dec 3, 2025 ·

About

San Francisco pre-seed accelerator uplifting underrepresented founders with up to $125K direct investment

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Jun 1, 2022	Jackpot	$42.0M Series A	—	Accomplice VC, Alt Capital, BITKRAFT Ventures, CMFG Ventures, Counterview Capital, Courtside Ventures, First Round Capital, Foresite Capital, Krishna Yeshwant, K9 Ventures, Moderne Ventures, Northpond Ventures, Plaid, QB1 Ventures, Rosecliff Ventures, Sacramento Angels, Saga, Sharp Alpha Advisors, Tribe Capital, Uncork Capital, What If Ventures, Colin Carrier, Jason Robins, Jon Goldman, Nat Goldhaber, Ollen Douglass, Rohit Gupta, Ryan Melohn
Mar 1, 2022	Opaper	$1.0M Seed	—	Coral Capital, GFT Ventures, Race Capital, Marc Benioff, Victor Young, William Adams
Sep 1, 2020	Aww	$940K Seed	—	Coral Capital, GFT Ventures, Race Capital, Marc Benioff, Victor Young, William Adams
May 1, 2020	Mindstrong Health	$100.0M Series C	—	BITKRAFT Ventures, Counterview Capital, Courtside Ventures, Matt Ocko, DST Global, Five Sigma, Footwork, General Catalyst, GSV Acceleration, NextView Ventures, QB1 Ventures, Quiet Capital, Reach Capital, Renegade Partners, Rosecliff Ventures, Shasta Ventures, SignalFire, SV Angel, Uncork Capital, Uprising, What If Ventures, Colin Carrier, David Jeske, Jason Citron, Jason Robins, Joe Greenstein, Jon Goldman, Julian Shapiro, Rohit Gupta, Ryan Melohn
Mar 1, 2020	Impossible Foods	$500.0M Series F	—	Amino Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, ARCH Venture Partners, Coral Capital, Cota Capital, Craft Ventures, Dreamers VC, FabFitFun, GFT Ventures, Highbury Group, Ingeborg Investments, Shawn Modarresi, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Marcy Venture Partners, OrbiMed, Patron, Pear VC, QueensBridge Venture Partners, Race Capital, RSE Ventures, Serena Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Tencent Holdings, Thirty Five Ventures, True Ventures, WndrCo LLC, Chris Hollod, Chris Schaepe, Claude Johnson, David Chen, Farzad Nazem, Jay Z, Justin Timberlake, Laszlo Bock, Marc Benioff, Marco A. Casas, Mark Cuban, Martin Li, Nick Jonas, Odell Beckham Jr., Peter Hunn, Rudra Peram, Sue Xu, Sung ho Choi, Victor Young
Nov 1, 2019	ScreenMeet	$2.0M Series A	—	BITKRAFT Ventures, Counterview Capital, Courtside Ventures, QB1 Ventures, Rosecliff Ventures, What If Ventures, Colin Carrier, Jason Robins, Jon Goldman, Rohit Gupta, Ryan Melohn
Sep 1, 2019	Atom Finance	$11.0M Series A	—	Addition, American Express Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Base Partners, Battery Ventures, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Bond, CapitalG, Company Capital, Curie.Bio, DAG Ventures, E1 Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Graypes GmbH, Highbury Group, Menlo Ventures, Operator Partners, SciFi VC, Sequoia Capital, Henry Fertik, UpHonest Capital, Wing Venture Capital, Aaron Levie, Elon Musk, Fanny Surjana, Jean-Sébastien Wallez, Liam Casey, Matt Mazzeo, Michael Moritz, Pratik Kapoor, Richard Cooperstein
Apr 1, 2019	Impossible Foods	$300.0M Series E	—	Addition, Adjacent, Amino Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, ARCH Venture Partners, Audrey Capital, Cherubic Ventures, Coral Capital, Cota Capital, Craft Ventures, Dreamers VC, Elefund, FabFitFun, Fifth Wall, Garden City Companies, GFT Ventures, Giant Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Highbury Group, Ingeborg Investments, IPD Capital, Shawn Modarresi, K2 Global, Khosla Ventures, LAUNCH, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lionheart Ventures, Listen, LombardStreet Ventures, Marcy Venture Partners, Maveron, OrbiMed, Pario Ventures, Patron, Pear VC, QueensBridge Venture Partners, Race Capital, RSE Ventures, Serena Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Sound Ventures, Tencent Holdings, Thirty Five Ventures, True Ventures, Uncork Capital, Uprising, WndrCo LLC, Alex Tang, Chris Hollod, Chris Schaepe, Claude Johnson, Darius Contractor, Darran Garnham, David Chen, Farzad Nazem, Jay Z, Joe Greenstein, Justin Timberlake, Kirill Makharinsky, Laszlo Bock, Marc Benioff, Marco A. Casas, Mark Cuban, Martin Li, Michael Birch, Nick Jonas, Odell Beckham Jr., Oleg Tscheltzoff, Pete Moore, Peter Hunn, Rudra Peram, Saki Georgiadis, Sue Xu, Sung ho Choi, Victor Young
Feb 1, 2019	Vicarious Surgical	$10.0M Series A	—	Coral Capital, Dimension Capital, Garden City Companies, GFT Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Lux Capital, Osage University Partners, Race Capital, The Column Group, Victor Young, William Adams
Jan 1, 2019	Atom Finance	$2.0M Seed	—	125 Ventures, 14W, Addition, American Express Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Audrey Capital, Base Partners, Battery Ventures, BBG Ventures, Benchmark, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Bond, BoxGroup, CapitalG, Company Capital, Curie.Bio, DAG Ventures, Dragoneer Investment Group, E1 Ventures, Founders Fund, Future Perfect Ventures, General Catalyst, GenNx360, GE Ventures, Graypes GmbH, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Highbury Group, Hoxton Ventures, Lux Capital, Menlo Ventures, Forest Baskett, Oak HC/FT, Operator Partners, Redpoint Ventures, SciFi VC, Sequoia Capital, Henry Fertik, Supply Change Capital, Target Global, Teamworthy Ventures, UpHonest Capital, WGI Group, Wing Venture Capital, Aaron Levie, Anne Wojcicki, Elon Musk, Fanny Surjana, Jean-Sébastien Wallez, Jeremy Yap, Julie McDermott, Liam Casey, Matt Mazzeo, Michael Moritz, Pratik Kapoor, Richard Cooperstein, Spencer Kimball
Jul 1, 2018	Team SoloMid	$37.0M Series A	—	AME Cloud Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Atomic, Audrey Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, BITKRAFT Ventures, Casa Verde Capital, Catapult Capital, Chemistry VC, Cota Capital, Counterview Capital, Courtside Ventures, CP Ventures, First Round Capital, Founder Collective, Foundry Group, FTX Ventures, General Catalyst, Golden Ventures, Gradient Ventures, Karim Faris, Hardware Club, High Alpha, IVP, Liquid 2 Ventures, Long Journey Ventures, Lumia Capital, NextGen Venture Partners, Penny Jar Capital, Polychain Capital, QB1 Ventures, Gil Penchina, Rosecliff Ventures, Simon Equity Partners LLC, Sound Ventures, Sparrows, Streamlined Ventures, Sweet Capital, Techstars, Telstra Ventures, Think + Ventures, Thirty Five Ventures, Uncork Capital, What If Ventures, Y Combinator, Andre Iguodala, Anjula Acharia Bath, Balaji Srinivasan, Eric Ries, George Hoyem, Jason Robins, Jens Christensen, Jon Goldman, Marcus Bartram, Mark Solon, Rohit Gupta, Ryan Melohn, Yee Lee
May 1, 2018	Yellowdig	$800K Venture Round	—	B Capital Group, BITKRAFT Ventures, Blume Ventures, Counterview Capital, Courtside Ventures, Khosla Ventures, QB1 Ventures, Rosecliff Ventures, RTP Global, SRI Capital, TL Ventures, What If Ventures, Amit Gupta, Colin Carrier, Jason Robins, Jon Goldman, Khalid AlNasser, Rohit Gupta, Ryan Melohn
Apr 1, 2018	Vicarious Surgical	$17.0M Series A	—	Coral Capital, Dimension Capital, GFT Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Lux Capital, Race Capital, The Column Group, Victor Young, William Adams
Apr 1, 2018	Biobot Analytics	$3.0M Seed	—	2.12 Angels, 500 Global, Kevin Hartz, Adverb Ventures, Airbus Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Angelic Ventures, Atreides Management, Better Tomorrow Ventures, C2 Investment, Camber Creek, CapitalG, Citi Ventures, Cleo Capital, Coelius Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Colle Capital, Concrete Ventures, Convective Capital, CSC Venture Capital, Curious Capital, Dawn Capital, Matt Ocko, DCVC (Data Collective), DFJ, Kevin Ding, Dispersion Capital, Dreamers VC, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Forward Deployed VC, Founders Fund, Goat Capital, Goodwater Capital, Greylock, Hardware Club, Homebrew, Hyperplane Venture Capital, Shawn Modarresi, Khosla Ventures, Kima Ventures, LocalGlobe, Locus Ventures, Marcy Venture Partners, Matrix, Mayfield, Menlo Ventures, MMC Ventures, N49P Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Nyca Partners, Off the Grid Ventures, Operator Partners, Pantera Capital, Pareto Holdings, Plum Alley Investments, Point Nine Capital, Prelude Ventures, sequel, Sinai Ventures, Soma Capital, South Park Commons, SV Angel, Target Global, Techstars, The Engine, The Hit Forge, Two Small Fish Ventures, Uncork Capital, UpHonest Capital, Verified Capital, Vine Ventures LP, Weekend Fund, Y Combinator, Alexandre Scialom, Andy Rankin, Anshu Sharma, Anthony Soohoo, Balaji Srinivasan, Brendan O'Driscoll, Chris Kelly, Daniel Graf, Don Hutchison, Drew Houston, Ed Baker, Emmett Shear, Eric Wu, Greg Brockman, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Immad Akhund, James Beshara, James Hong, Jared Leto, Jay Z, Jeff Seibert, Joe Greenstein, John Hennessy, Juha Paananen, Kyle Vogt, Louis Beryl, Marc McCabe, Marissa Mayer, Rob May, Ron Pragides, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Shervin Pishevar, Tikhon Bernstam, Trevor Blackwell, Vishal Makhijani, Wayne Chang
Jan 1, 2018	Epics.gg	$2.0M Seed	—	BITKRAFT Ventures, Counterview Capital, Courtside Ventures, QB1 Ventures, Rosecliff Ventures, What If Ventures, Colin Carrier, Jason Robins, Rohit Gupta, Ryan Melohn
Jul 1, 2017	FanAI	$2.0M Seed	—	Accomplice VC, ACME Capital, Amasia, BITKRAFT Ventures, Bling Capital, Broadway Angels, Capital Factory, Carmenta, Coefficient Capital, Counterview Capital, Courtside Ventures, DST Global, ENIAC Ventures, Eunoia Capital Partners, Expansion Venture Capital, FirstMark Capital, GPG Ventures, Javelin Venture Partners, MetaProp Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, QB1 Ventures, Results Junkies, Romulus Capital, Rosecliff Ventures, SeedInvest, Westcott LLC, What If Ventures, Y Combinator, Andy Rankin, Ben Kosinski, Colin Carrier, Jason Robins, Jay Gould, Jon Goldman, Rohit Gupta, Ryan Melohn, Vikas Taneja
Mar 1, 2017	Plutoshift	$4.0M Seed	—	Abstract Ventures, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Coral Capital, Electric Capital, GFT Ventures, Polychain Capital, Race Capital, Gil Penchina, UpHonest Capital, Y Combinator, Ding Zhou, Marc Benioff, Sam Altman, Victor Young, William Adams
Sep 1, 2016	Yellowdig	$500K Seed	—	BITKRAFT Ventures, Counterview Capital, Courtside Ventures, QB1 Ventures, Rosecliff Ventures, SRI Capital, TL Ventures, What If Ventures, Colin Carrier, Jason Robins, Jon Goldman, Rohit Gupta, Ryan Melohn
Mar 1, 2016	Penrose Studios	$9.0M Seed	—	Coral Capital, GFT Ventures, Marcy Venture Partners, Race Capital, SeedInvest, SOSV, Staenberg Venture Partners, Dave Balter, Marc Benioff, Sahin Boydas, William Adams

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Nex Cubed.

Kelsey Morgan Pasqualichio

General Partner

Dylan Weening

Business Development Associate

Daniel Haders

Duncan Logan

Chief Strategy Officer

Leadership Team

Key people at Nex Cubed.

Kelsey Morgan Pasqualichio

General Partner

Dylan Weening

Business Development Associate

Daniel Haders

Duncan Logan

Chief Strategy Officer

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Nex Cubed is a pre-seed venture accelerator based in San Francisco that focuses on investing in and uplifting underrepresented founders, particularly Black, female, and Latin entrepreneurs who historically receive less than 2% of all venture capital funding. Their mission is to create an inclusive and diverse startup ecosystem by providing up to $125K in direct investment, hands-on mentorship, and access to a global network of investors, advisors, and corporate partners. They emphasize startups solving real-world problems in sectors like financial services, healthcare, education, and housing, aiming to generate impact aligned with the Triple Bottom Line—people, planet, and profit.

Nex Cubed has accelerated over 300 companies, with 65% led by underrepresented founders, helping raise more than $500 million in capital and creating over 5,000 jobs. Their accelerator programs are highly customized, remote, and founder-focused, offering lifetime support and embedding paid expert advisors to work closely with startups throughout the program[1][2][3][4].

Origin Story

Founded in 2016 by Phil Terrill, a Tuskegee University (HBCU) graduate, Nex Cubed evolved from a focus on supporting Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to a broader mission of uplifting underrepresented founders across the U.S. The company’s leadership includes key partners such as Kip Quackenbush (Co-founder, President & COO). Over time, Nex Cubed has expanded its focus to include industry-specific accelerators and a dedicated HBCU Founders Accelerator, which supports startups with at least one founder affiliated with an HBCU.

The idea emerged from recognizing the severe funding gap faced by minority entrepreneurs and the need for a tailored, equity-driven accelerator that provides not just capital but also strategic support and access to networks. Early traction came from successfully accelerating startups like SoleSafe™ (automated underwriting for sneakers) and Enrichly (an educational equity platform), demonstrating the impact of their model on diverse founders[1][2][5].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Offers direct pre-seed investments up to $125K with follow-on funding options ranging from $100K to $500K, particularly through the HBCU Founders Accelerator.
Founder-Centric, Customized Program: Remote, fully tailored four-month accelerator with embedded, paid expert advisors providing daily executive-level support.
Extensive Network: Access to a global network of 220+ mentors, strategic advisors, investors, and an active alumni community.
Impact-Driven Focus: Prioritizes startups addressing historically underserved sectors with a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Long-Term Support: Lifetime access to Nex Cubed’s ecosystem, including liquidity opportunities via M&A pathways and enterprise capital connections.
Track Record: Over 300 companies accelerated, $500M+ raised by portfolio companies, and 5,000+ jobs created, with 65% of startups led by underrepresented founders[1][3][4][5].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Nex Cubed rides the growing trend of impact investing and diversity-focused venture capital, addressing systemic inequities in startup funding. The timing is critical as the tech ecosystem increasingly recognizes the value of diverse founders in driving innovation and social impact. Market forces such as increased demand for ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) principles and social entrepreneurship align with Nex Cubed’s mission to embed these values into early-stage startups.

By focusing on underrepresented founders and underserved communities, Nex Cubed helps diversify the innovation pipeline, influencing the broader ecosystem to become more inclusive and equitable. Their model also supports the rise of remote and customized accelerator programs, which expand access beyond traditional geographic and demographic boundaries[1][3][4].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Nex Cubed is poised to deepen its influence by scaling its tailored accelerator programs, especially the HBCU Founders Accelerator launching cohorts in 2025. As diversity and impact investing continue to gain momentum, Nex Cubed’s approach of combining capital, mentorship, and network access uniquely positions it to shape the future of inclusive entrepreneurship.

Emerging trends such as remote acceleration, sector-specific programs, and integration of ESG principles will likely shape their journey. Their ongoing commitment to the Triple Bottom Line and expanding global network suggests Nex Cubed will remain a key player in redefining venture capital to be more equitable and impact-driven, continuing to uplift underrepresented founders and create systemic change in the startup ecosystem[3][4][5].

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Offers direct pre-seed investments up to $125K with follow-on funding options ranging from $100K to $500K, particularly through the HBCU Founders Accelerator.
Founder-Centric, Customized Program: Remote, fully tailored four-month accelerator with embedded, paid expert advisors providing daily executive-level support.
Extensive Network: Access to a global network of 220+ mentors, strategic advisors, investors, and an active alumni community.
Impact-Driven Focus: Prioritizes startups addressing historically underserved sectors with a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Long-Term Support: Lifetime access to Nex Cubed’s ecosystem, including liquidity opportunities via M&A pathways and enterprise capital connections.
Track Record: Over 300 companies accelerated, $500M+ raised by portfolio companies, and 5,000+ jobs created, with 65% of startups led by underrepresented founders[1][3][4][5].